Digbeth Branch Canal

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Aston Junction at the start of the Digbeth Branch Canal
Locks on the Digbeth Branch
Proof House Junction
The Warwick Bar stop lock and Banana Warehouse
Bordesley Junction

The Digbeth Branch Canal is a short canal in Birmingham, Warwickshire, which links the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction to the Grand Union Canal at Digbeth Junction in Digbeth (or historically, at the adjacent Warwick Bar).

Built under the Birmingham Canal Act 1768 and completed in 1799 the Digbeth Branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations took traffic from the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal and the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (now both part of the Grand Union Canal) towards the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at the Worcester Bar (Gas Street Basin).

The 1¼-mile-long canal has six locks leading down from Aston Junction. It passes through a Grade II listed tunnel at the east of Curzon Street railway station (originally carrying the main lines from it) and under the viaduct of today's eastbound railway line from Birmingham New Street Station. It then originally met the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal at the Warwick Bar stop lock just to the rear of Birmingham Proof House, at which there is a short branch to the Typhoo Basin. The junction is called Digbeth Junction or Proof House Junction. It has a total fall of 40 feet.

All of the canal between Ashted Lock at Jennens Road (formerly the A47) and Great Barr Street (Bordesley) is within the Warwick Bar Conservation Area.

Features

Point Coordinates
Aston Junction 52°29’25"N, 1°53’19"W
Ashted Lock 52°29’10"N, 1°53’2"W
Ashted tunnel North portal 52°28’55"N, 1°52’55"W
Ashted tunnel South portal 52°28’51"N, 1°52’59"W
Railway viaduct 52°28’51"N, 1°53’4"W
Proof House Junction 52°28’49"N, 1°53’3"W
Warwick Bar 52°28’47"N, 1°53’0"W
River Rea 52°28’44"N, 1°52’55"W
Great Barr Street 52°28’40"N, 1°52’48"W
Bordesley Junction 52°28’32"N, 1°52’38"W

Outside links

References

  • Perrott,David; Mosse,Jonathan (2006). Nicholson Waterways Guide 3 - Birmingham & the Heart of England. Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-721111-1. 
  • Joseph Priestley (1831). Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, Throughout Great Britain. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. 
The Birmingham Canal Navigations
Navigable:

BCN Main LineBirmingham and Fazeley CanalBumble Hole Branch CanalCannock Extension CanalDigbeth Branch CanalDudley CanalEngine ArmGower Branch CanalIcknield Port LoopNetherton Tunnel Branch CanalRushall CanalSoho LoopSpon Lane Locks BranchTame Valley CanalTitford CanalWalsall CanalWednesbury Oak LoopWednesbury Old CanalWyrley and Essington Canal

Unnavigable:

Anson Branch • Bentley Canal • Bradley Branch • Lichfield Canal • Ridgacre Branch • Tipton Green and Toll End Canals