Your floating hotel on the Canals and Rivers of the UK

Our guide to the waterways of the UK in detail.

The History of the Birmingham & Fazley Canal.

Soon after the Birmingham canal was opened in 1772 a canal was proposed to connect the Wednesbury coalfields with the Coventry Canal. The Trent & Mersey, Oxford and Coventry canal companies fully supported the proposal as the new route would also be used to finally complete an unfinished portion of the Coventry Canal which was preventing a through route from Manchester to London. However, the neighbouring Birmingham Canal Company bitterly opposed the scheme as it already had a lucrative coal carrying business in Wednesbury using its own Wednesbury Canal. As a result considerable legal battles and other manoeuvring followed.

Eventually the Birmingham and Fazeley canal was authorised to run from the Birmingham canal at Farmer's Bridge on the Newhall branch of the Birmingham canal, traffic from the Wednesbury coalfields would thus continue to use the Birmingham canal, to the Coventry canal at Fazeley in 1783. It was combined with the Birmingham canal company in 1784. As part of the settlement the Birmingham Canal improved the main line from the junction for Wednesbury removing 6 locks.

It was still agreed that half the missing eleven miles of the Coventry Canal would be built by the Birmingham & Fazeley Company, this section to terminate at Whittington Brook; the Trent & Mersey were to be responsible for the remainder. Eventually the Coventry was to buy the northern section off the Trent & Mersey, but it was never able to buy the section from Fazeley despite attempts in 1860 to do so.

In 1789 the Birmingham & Fazeley was opened, and in 1790 the missing sections of the Coventry were completed too. Instantly it was a roaring success in terms of boats passing through, boats could now travel from Birmingham to London or to the north via the new route. Previously the only route to London was via a long trek around Wolverhampton to the river Severn (though other rival routes were being built) and then via the new Thames & Severn Canal. The new canal cut the route to London by 52 miles!

1799 The Warwick & Birmingham Canal opened connecting Warwick to the ever-growing industrial areas of the Midlands. The new route entered Birmingham on the south east side of the town, dropping through 6 locks into the town centre at Digbeth Basin. At its terminus a short connecting arm named the Digbeth Branch was built travelling just ½ a mile north west, up through 8 locks to join the Birmingham & Fazeley. Within a year the Warwick & Birmingham Canal became part of a route to London that cut another amazing 89 miles off the journey between London and the Black Country. The new route made the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal even busier in central Birmingham.

1844 The BCN Company had a virtual monopoly of the waterways in the Black Country. As the 1840's went on an amalgamation with a railway company became unavoidable. In most areas of Britain railway companies were either forcing the closure of canals by taking away their trade or were simply buying the canals and closing them down. However this was not the case in Birmingham and the BCN actually grew and improved under railway control. The take-over deal allowed the canal company to keep control until the waterways began to make a loss.

While most canals in the country were suffering from lack of boats, the BCN were having problems due to too many boats. The Farmers Bridge Flight on the Birmingham and Fazeley in central Birmingham was completely overloaded, in March 1841 4,877 boats past through the flight, over 150 a day. Congestion was acute despite 24 hour working.

As well as the intended coal from Wednesbury the flight was serving through boats from Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, Worcester, Coventry, the Potteries and London. So the BCN opened the Tame Valley Canal and the Warwick canals opened the Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal to provide a bypass for boats using the northern BCN. Both of these connected with the Birmingham & Fazeley at Salford Junction. Following this the Birmingham & Fazeley carried fewer boats but the BCN as a whole continued to make a healthy profit for a further 25 years.

In 1868 with trade beginning to drop the railway company (London & North Western) took control of the BCN. The railway company did not seek to close down the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal however; they kept it open and well maintained. The BCN continued to hold its own against all other forms of transport though the World Wars and the decline of Black Country coal slowly but surely reduced the canal's trade. Following World War II the whole of the BCN was nationalised, goods were still being carried on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal but there were certainly no traffic congestion problems any more.

Tom Foxton in his book, 'No 1' describes boating on this canal in the mid 1950's. At that time substantial amounts of coal were still being carried by canal from the N. Warwickshire coalfields to the factories of Birmingham in Joey boats largely still horse drawn.

In 1966 coal carriage ended leaving only a small amount of other trade on the canal. By this time a small amount of pleasure craft had begun to use the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. However much of the inner-city sections were run down, warehouses were derelict, formerly busy arms were closed and blocked off and the canal was often full of rubbish.

In the 1970's the country's first ever inner-city canal redevelopment took place on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal at the top of the Farmers Bridge flight. Cambrian Wharf was cleaned up and stripped of its derelict buildings. A new pub was opened and moorings were created for pleasure boats.

Then in 1984 the Urban Inner City Partnership sponsored the upgrading of what was a very run down area down Farmers Bridge Locks. Over a £1,000,000 was spent and the dereliction was reversed.

Sources.

Nicholson Guides to the Waterways.

Roots & Routes, Peter Hardcastle's Website
http://www.canals.btinternet.co.uk/index.htm

Canal Companion, Stourport Ring, J.M. Pearson. Published by Central Waterways Supplies of Rugby in 2003. ISBN 0-9545383-1-5

Some pictures of this canal?

Farmers Bridge locks / The rest of the canal.

General information

Find our information about other canals on the canal index page.

If you have any questions then do ring us on 07977 229103
or email us at martinreed@reedboats.co.uk