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The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England.

A stretch of the canal in Stratford

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal

legend Worcester and Birmingham Canal Kings Norton Junction 1 King's Norton Stop Lock (guillotine - (open) Brandwood Tunnel (320m) 3 A435 Alcester Road South 8 Shirley draw bridge 9a Birmingham to Stratford Line Earlswood Lakes and feeder 20a M42 Bridge Hockley Heath wharf 25 A3400 Stratford Road bridge 2-19 Lapworth Locks (18) Kingswood Junction 20 Lapworth Locks 21 Lapworth Locks Kingswood Jn., Grand Union Canal 22-26 Lapworth Locks (5) 39a M40 Bridge 27 Lapworth Bottom Lock 28-33 Locks (6) Yarningale aqueduct 34-35 Locks (2) 36-38 Preston Bagot Locks (3) 47a A4189 Warwick Road bridge A3400 Wootton Wawen aqueduct 39 Bearley Lock Edstone aqueduct (230m) 40-50 Wilmcote Locks (11) 62a A46 Chaly Beate Bridge 51 Bishopton Lock 64a Railway bridges 52 One Elm Lock 65 A3400 Birmingham Road bridge 53 Maidenhead Road Lock 54 Lock 55 Warwick Road Lock 68 A439 Warwick Road bridge 69 A422 Bridge Foot bridge Bancroft Basin, Stratford 56 Wide Lock River Avon

The canal, built between 1793 and 1816, runs 25½ miles in total, consisting of two sections.

The southern section starts at Bancroft Basin in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, and stretches north as far as Kingswood Junction near Lapworth, Warwickshire where it is connected to the Grand Union Canal by a short spur.

The northern section continues, to join the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Kings Norton Junction in the suburbs of Birmingham.

Along the route of the canal, there are 54 narrow locks, all concentrated between between Hockley Heath and Stratford. There is a disused stop lock near King's Norton Junction, which is unique of its kind in having guillotine gates. A barge lock connects the terminal basin (Bancroft Basin) with the River Avon.

Earlswood Lakes in Earlswood are feeder reservoirs to the canal. The three lakes were built between 1821 and 1822 and have a total capacity of 210 million gallons. The lakes consist of three separate pools; Terry's, Engine and Windmill Pool. They are retained by earth embankment. Until 1936 the water was pumped into the feeder by a beam engine, whose engine house can still be seen. The feeder was navigable for coal boats to reach the engine house and is now used for moorings.

Features

Edstone Aqueduct

The southern section of the canal passes over three cast iron aqueducts, unusual in that the towpaths are at the level of the canal bottom.

Travelling north, from Stratford-upon-Avon, the first is the Edstone Aqueduct (also known as Bearley) which at 754 feet, is the longest in England. The aqueduct crosses a minor road, the Birmingham and North Warwickshire railway and also the trackbed of the former Alcester Railway. There was once a pipe from the side of the canal that enabled locomotives to draw water to fill the loco's tank. Some excellent pictures of the aqueduct with locomotive tanks being filled from the canal can be found on the Warwickshire Railways website

Wootton Wawen Aqueduct

The second is the Wootton Wawen Aqueduct, just outside Wootton Wawen, where the canal crosses the A3400 main road.

Yarningale Aqueduct

The third aqueduct is the more modest Yarningale Aqueduct which carries the canal over a small stream near Preston Bagot, Warwickshire. This cast iron aqueduct was built in 1834 to replace the original wooden structure which was washed away when the stream flooded that year.

There is only one tunnel on the canal - at Brandwood near Kings Norton Junction at the northern end.

A barrel-roofed cottage at Kingswood Junction

Another interesting feature of the canal is the unique barrel-roofed lock keeper's cottages to be found south of Kingswood Junction. All but two have been swamped by large modern extensions, but those at locks 28 and 31 are still in something like their original state.

Many of the accommodation bridges south of Kingswood Junction are twin cantilever bridges of cast iron, with a central slot to accommodate the tow rope of horse-drawn boats. On the northern section there are three lift bridges, one of which, no. 8, is electrically operated.

History

Shirley drawbridge (bridge No. 8) at Majors Green on the northern branch

The drawbridge open

An Act was passed in 1793 for the construction of a canal from a junction with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal in Kings Norton to Stratford-upon-Avon. The act did not include any provision for a connection with the River Avon.

Construction began in 1793, and William Clowes, the engineer, continued until it reached Hockley Heath in May 1796. At this point, cutting ceased through lack of money. It was restarted in 1800 under a new engineer by the name of Samuel Porter, a former assistant of Clowes, who had died. He continued as far as Kingswood Junction, where cutting again ceased as the Company was far more interested in creating a link from the southwest towards London avoiding Birmingham, than in reaching Stratford. Construction only recommenced in 1812, following pressure from William James of Stratford, who owned the Upper Avon Navigation. The canal reached Stratford in June 1816 and a connection with the River Avon, authorised by an Act in 1815, was made. In 1856 the canal was bought by the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway, which was absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1863.

The southern section of the canal never realised James' ambitions, as the Upper Avon was too tortuous and prone to floods to be a reliable through route from the River Severn to the Midlands. By the late 1930s it had become derelict, although a water supply was maintained, which the GWR used to supply its engine shed in Stratford. The northern section was never officially closed, but traffic had virtually ceased by 1939. It was blocked when bridge no. 2, a lift bridge, was repaired by the GWR in such a way that it could not be opened by anyone using the canal. After Lord Methuen raised the issue in the House of Lords in 1947, and was assured that the bridge "would be lifted at any time on notice of intended passage being given", Tom Rolt of the Inland Waterways Association gave notice that he intended to pass under the bridge on 20 May 1947. Despite difficulties with the state of the canal, and the fact that the accompanying boat provided by the GWR got stuck, the bridge was reached. It had been jacked up and was resting on heavy timbers. Eric de Mare repeated the exercise in 1948, and the northern section was saved from dereliction by such efforts. The bridge was subsequently rebuilt as a swing bridge, but has now been removed altogether.

Problems with a bridge also began the process of restoring the southern section. Warwickshire County Council sought to obtain legal abandonment of the canal in 1958, as they wished to replace bridge 59 at Wilmcote without the expense of providing navigable headroom. A campaign against this by the Inland Waterways Association and local activists depended on a single toll ticket for a canoe, issued the previous year, showing that the canal was not disused. The canal was then offered to the National Trust, who raised the £42,000 required to put it back into good order.^[1]. Restoration started in 1961, led by David Hutchings and using voluntary labour including prisoners from Winson Green prison and pioneering methods used on many subsequent restorations. The formal reopening was on 11 July 1964. A private toll fee was charged for navigation, until the canal was transferred to British Waterways on 1 April 1988. Its restoration was a turning point for the waterways movement in Britain.

See also

UK Waterways portal

• Stratford and Moreton Tramway

References

• "The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal". Canal Junction. http://www.canaljunction.com/canal/stratford.htm.  
• Pearson, Michael. Canal Companion - Severn and Avon. J. M. Pearson & Son Ltd. ISBN 0-907864-79-1.  
• Labrum, E.A.. Civil Engineering Heritage. Thomas Telford. ISBN 072771970X.  

Coordinates: 52°17′40″N 1°43′56″W / 52.2944°N 1.7322°W / 52.2944; -1.7322