Tame Valley Canal

Perry Barr top lock and keepers cottage No 86

The Tame Valley Canal is a canal in Staffordshire and Warwickshire. It forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Built in 1844, it takes its name from the roughly-parallel River Tame.

Geography

The canal runs from Tame Valley Junction where it joins the Walsall Canal near Ocker Hill and Toll End, and terminates at Salford Junction where it meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and the Grand Union Canal. It is 8½ miles long and has twin towpaths throughout.

Between Tame Valley Junction and Rushall Junction it goes under the Midland Metro near Wednesbury and crosses over the former Grand Junction Railway (now part of the Chase Line) by aqueduct, near Tame Bridge Parkway railway station (an unusual case of the railway pre-dating a neighbouring canal).

It passes over the M5 motorway near the interchange with the M6 motorway (M6 junction 8) and joins the Rushall Canal at Rushall Junction, inside the triangle formed by the motorway junction. East of Rushall Junction the canal passes under another arm of the M5. At Hamstead the remains of a wharf can be seen, This served the former Hamstead Colliery. Further east, there are two more aqueducts (Spouthouse Lane and Piercy, the latter over the Old Walsall Road), and a deep cutting in 200-million-year-old sandstone, under Freeth Bridge (now restricted to pedestrians and bikes only) at Tower Hill. There are no locks on this section, which is at the 408 ft Walsall Level, but it passes over eight aqueducts within five miles (seven of which are original).

The thirteen Perry Barr Locks, where the level drops 106 feet, start just beyond the A34 road. The original lock keepers cottages remain. In the adjacent Perry Park, near Alexander Stadium, is Perry Reservoir, a feeder reservoir fed by a stream from the lake at Great Barr Hall. From there, the canal passes under the M6 three times, including Gravelly Hill Interchange (Spaghetti Junction), shortly after which it terminates, at Salford Junction.

History

1901 map showing the former canal basin at Hamstead

The canal was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1839 and opened in 1844. Its engineer was James Walker.

Features

• Tame Valley Junction: 52°32’24"N, 2°2’7"W; SO976936 (0.0 miles)
• Gold Hill Wharf (approx, site of): 52°32’28"N, 2°1’40"W; SO981937 (0.4)
• Midland Metro: 52°32’34"N, 2°1’8"W; SO987939 (0.7)
• Holloway Bank Wharf (site of): 52°32’42"N, 2°-0’40"W; SO992941 (1.0)
• Chase Line crossing: 52°33’4"N, 1°58’30"W; SP016948 (2.7)
• M5 motorway aqueduct (west arm): 52°33’6"N, 1°58’17"W; SP019949 (2.9)
• River Tame: 52°33’5"N, 1°57’58"W; SP022948 (3.1)
• Rushall Junction: 52°33’1"N, 1°57’23"W; SP029947 (3.5)
• M5 motorway (east arm): 52°32’59"N, 1°57’20"W; SP030947 (3.6)
• Newton Road (A4041): 52°32’38"N, 1°56’54"W; SP035940 (4.0)
• Chimney Bridge: 52°32’34"N, 1°56’50"W; SP035939 (4.1)
• Hamstead Wharf and basin (site of): 52°32’20"N, 1°56’25"W; SP038936 (4.4)
• Spouthouse Lane Aqueduct: 52°32’15"N, 1°56’6"W; SP044933 (4.7)
• Piercy Aqueduct: 52°32’10"N, 1°55’49"W; SP047931 (5.0)
• Freeth Bridge: 52°31’59"N, 1°55’13"W; SP054928 (5.4)
• A34 road: 52°31’57"N, 1°54’56"W; SP057927 (5.6)
• Perry Barr Top Lock (1): 52°31’57"N, 1°54’52"W; SP061927 (5.6)
• Perry Barr Lock 2: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’45"W; SP059928 (5.7)
• Perry Barr Lock 3: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’39"W; SP060928 (5.8)
• Perry Barr Lock 4: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’33"W; SP061928 (5.8)
• Perry Barr Lock 5: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’26"W; SP062928 (5.9)
• Perry Barr Lock 6: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’20"W; SP064928 (6.0)
• Perry Barr Lock 7: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’14"W; SP065928 (6.1)
• Perry Reservoir: 52°31’55"N, 1°54’9"W; SP066927 (6.2)
• M6 motorway: 52°31’58"N, 1°54’-0"W; SP067928 (6.3)
• Perry Barr Lock 8: 52°31’54"N, 1°53’46"W; SP070927 (6.4)
• Perry Barr Lock 9: 52°31’51"N, 1°53’38"W; SP072925 (6.5)
• Perry Barr Lock 10: 52°31’48"N, 1°53’33"W; SP072925 (6.6)
• College Road (A453): 52°31’48"N, 1°53’31"W; SP073924 (6.6)
• Staffordshire/Warwickshire border: 52°31’46"N, 1°53’28"W; SP074923 (6.6)
• Perry Barr Lock 11: 52°31’43"N, 1°53’21"W; SP075923 (6.7)
• M6 motorway: 52°31’22"N, 1°52’53"W; SP080917 (7.2)
• Perry Barr Lock 12: 52°30’53"N, 1°52’21"W; SP086908 (7.8)
• Perry Barr Lock 13: 52°30’50"N, 1°52’16"W; SP087907 (7.9)
• Cross-City Line: 52°30’42"N, 1°51’59"W; SP090904 (8.2)
• Gravelly Hill Interchange: 52°30’40"N, 1°51’55"W; SP091904 (8.4)
• Lichfield Road (A5127): 52°30’32"N, 1°51’37"W; SP094901 (8.5)
• Salford Junction: 52°30’31"N, 1°51’35"W; SP095901 (8.5)

Gallery

• 
  PerryBarr Lock No. 7 and grey heron
• 
  Spouthouse Lane Aqueduct, Hamstead
• 
  Tame Valley Junction - the western terminus on the Walsall Canal
• 
  Midland Metro over Tame Valley Canal

References

• Pearson, Michael (1989). Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations. J. M. Pearson & Associates. ISBN 0-907864-49-X. 

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Tame Valley Canal)

• Waterscape: Tame Valley Canal
• Up the Cut
• Photographic guide