Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Is a Knotty Network of Canals Linking Towns and Country Together

l Birmingham Cana This fact file is designed to help you with avigations homework and other projects. N It will help you: • Find out who built the BCN FACT FILE • Discover all about your local canal • See where it goes

Today, the BCN has 100 miles of navigable canals

Cool canals Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a knotty network of canals linking towns and country together. At its centre, Gas Street Basin is busy with boaters, walkers and cyclists. The BCN is one But there are also secret branch canals just waiting to of the most complicated be explored! canal networks in the world!

© Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 1 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers mingham Canal ir CHASEWATER B ‘Flight of 21 Locks’ RESERVOIR avigations Wolverhampton N 1 Coventry Canal Shropshire Union Canal Which is Daw End Wyrley & Canal your nearest canal? Essington Canal What’s it called? Staffs & FAZELEY Worcs Canal 1 Walsall Art Gal Chimney Bridge, lery WALSALL 7 Tame Valley Canal Walsall Canal Rushall 7 WOLVERHAMPTON Canal 2 Birmingham and Fazeley Canal BCN WEDNESBURY Main Line ‘Legging’ through Dudley Tunnel BRADLEY 2 5 Tame Valley Canal Toll Office 5 DUDLEY 4 gham Roundhouse A powerhouse Birmin Farmers Bridge Locks Two hundred years Stourbridge 6 ago, at the height of its Canal SMETHWICK Gas Street Basin, Dudley 6 Birmingham importance, the BCN had Canals BIRMINGHAM 3 160 miles (257 km) of canals, 1 and 2 4 3 206 locks, 17 pumping S stations, 7 tunnels and to STOURBRIDGE urb Grand Union ridg 6 reservoirs. e Gla Worcs & ss Cone Birmingham Canal Canal

Galton Valley Pumping Station, Smethwick © Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers 2 What Happened When 1829 1824 Birmingham Canal Main 1767 Thomas Telford shortens Line opens James Birmingham Brindley plans 1769 Canal by cutting Birmingham Birmingham Canal out loops Canal opened connecting Wednesbury to Birmingham

1772 2019 Birmingham 250th Canal is birthday of extended to 1795 the BCN! Wolverhampton First section of Worcester 1794 & Birmingham Birmingham Canal opened 1789 Canal Company renamed the Birmingham Birmingham Canal & Fazeley Navigations Canal completed

Birmingham’s first canal In 1767, businessmen in the Midlands raised money to build a ten-mile-long canal linking the coal mines in Wednesbury to Birmingham. They knew that if coal could be delivered quickly and cheaply by canal into the centre of Birmingham A packhorse Potholes and puddles they would make lots of money! could carry about Before canals were built, goods 140kg. A canal boat were delivered by packhorse. The roads were so bad it was towed by one horse slow and hard going. could pull 25 tonnes. James Brindley No contest! planned the canal to follow the natural contours of the land. Tunnels and locks King coal were expensive In the 1700s, coal was used to run everything from machines and furnaces to heating homes. It fuelled the Industrial Revolution!

Success! Now our The Birmingham Canal did so well it was goods can be extended to Wolverhampton where it joined imported and the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. exported abroad Now Birmingham had a direct trading link to the River Severn via Stourport, and the much more seaports of Bristol and Gloucester. easily

© Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 4 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers Rivals! It wasn’t long before rival canal A new route to the sea companies planned new canals to link coal mines near Walsall to In 1795, the first section of the Worcester factories in the West Midlands. & Birmingham Canal was opened. It was a shorter route to the River Severn and the sea. To protect its own trade, the Birmingham Canal Company refused to Birmingham’s second canal join the new canal. The Worcester Bar was built to separate the two rival In 1787, John Smeaton, built the Birmingham canals at Gas Street Basin. & Fazeley Canal. It linked the Coventry Canal to the Birmingham Canal and provided a connection to London. Goods had to be unloaded at the Bar and transferred The 13 Farmers Bridge onto boats on the Locks on the Birmingham other side & Fazeley were so busy they operated around the clock. Fights often broke out when boaters were forced to wait their turn. It was 20 years before a lock was built to allow boats through

© Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 5 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers Birmingham’s third canal In 1824, Thomas Telford drew up plans to straighten the Birmingham Canal. He cut through hills and built embankments of The old earth to cross valleys. It was renamed Birmingham Canal No matter how the Birmingham Canal Main Line. was renamed the long the journeys Birmingham Canal took, you’d only Cargo Old Main Line get paid for that Bulky goods such as coal were loaded one trip and unloaded onto wharves. Perishable goods such as spices and tea were stored in warehouses.

Chocolate! John Cadbury stored tea and cocoa The birth of the BCN in Birmingham warehouses. Later he As other companies built canals That’s where moved his business to Bournville on such as the Wyrley & Essington the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. Cadbury World is Canal, they all became one today. Yippee! company known as the BCN.

© Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 6 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers Building canals ‘Navvy’ is short for James Brindley, Thomas Telford and John Smeaton, the greatest canal engineers of navigators their day, planned the canals. But teams of men called navvies built them. It was hard and dangerous work. Without us you wouldn’t have canals! Bad accidents killed many of my mates

Tools of the trade There were no machines These are - navvies used just picks, the BCN canals spades and muscle power to dig through hills, we built valleys and hard rock.

Phew! Birmingham & Fazeley Canal Dudley No. 2 Canal Birmingham Canal Main Line Rushall Canal Birmingham Canal Old Main Line Tame Valley Canal Daw End Branch Canal Walsall Canal Dudley No. 1 Canal Wyrely & Essington Canal

© Canal & River Trust Charity Commission no. 1146792 7 canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers Roads and railways In the twentieth century, it Hot property became much cheaper to transport goods by road or Property developers knew that many rail. The noisy wharves and People often busy canals were abandoned. people loved to live say that Birmingham Interesting canal buildings and work by water and fantastic engineering and converted old has more canals achievements became derelict. warehouses into new offices and homes. than Venice - one of Europe’s most beautiful cities! Help at hand I like Then, just after the Second World War people spotting the began to realise that an important part of our wildlife history was being lost. They formed groups and gradually cleared all the rubbish and weeds, mended canal banks and rebuilt locks. The Canal & River Trust owns and manages the BCN today

Want to know more about your canal? Book a FREE trip for your school or group to the BCN, led by our fantastic team of Explorers Education Volunteers! Visit canalrivertrust.org.uk/explorers to find out Today, school children often help more and download other learning resources. keep canals clear of rubbish for everyone to enjoy.