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49610

The Birmingham Main Line Canal in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.

In 1767, several prominent Birmingham businessmen, including Matthew Boulton and others from the Lunar Society, held a public meeting to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near Wolverhampton, taking in the coalfields of the Black Country. They commissioned the canal engineer James Brindley to propose a route. Brindley came back with a largely level route via Smethwick, Oldbury, Tipton, Bilston and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.

An Act of Parliament was passed to allow the building of the canal, with branches at Ocker Hill and Wednesbury where there were coal mines. The first phase of building was to Wednesbury whereupon the price of coal sold to domestic households in Birmingham halved overnight.

By 1769, 10 miles (16 km) had been completed to Hill Top collieries in West Bromwich, with a one-mile summit pound at Smethwick. Brindley had tried to dig a cutting through the hill at Smethwick but had encountered ground too soft to cope with.

In 1772, the canal was joined with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Aldersley Junction, however Brindley died a few days later. Over the next thirty years, as more canals and branches were built or connected it became necessary to review the long, winding, narrow Old Main Line. With a single towpath boats passing in opposite directions had to negotiate their horses and ropes.

In 1824 Thomas Telford was commissioned to examine alternatives. Telford proposed major changes to the section between Birmingham and Smethwick, widening and straightening the canal, providing towpaths on each side, and cutting through Smethwick Summit to bypass the locks, allowing lock-free passage from Birmingham to Tipton.

By 1827 the New Main Line passed straight through, and linked to, the loops of the Old Main Line, creating Oozells Loop, Icknield Port Loop, Soho Loop, Cape Loop and Soho Foundry Loop, allowing continued access to the existing factories and wharves.

A year earlier he had built an improved Rotton Park Reservoir (Edgbaston Reservoir) on the site of an existing fish pool, bringing its capacity to 300 million imperial gallons (1,400,000 m3). A canal feeder took water to, and along, a raised embankment on the south side of the New Main Line to his new Engine Arm branch canal and across an elegant cast iron aqueduct to top up the higher Wolverhampton Level at Smethwick Summit.

Information Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCN_Main_Line

Taken in: UK / England / Fallings Park (show map)

Taken on: December 28, 2016

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Wolverhampton

West Midlands

England

English

United Kingdom

Great Britain

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Birmingham Main Line Canal

Canal

BCN Main Line

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Birmingham Canal

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Matthew Boulton

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Lunar Society

James Brindley

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Sets appears in: • Wolverhampton • West Midlands more » • Birmingham Main Line Canal « less

Groups appears in: • canals • Wolverhampton more » • Birmingham Canals • Unlimited! • View of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Birmingham. • Canals and Waterways of Great Britain • Wolverhampton (Your 5 a Day) • UK public footpaths, bridleways and byways • We ♥ Wolverhampton • I Will Photograph Anything...Will You ? • Bridges over ..... • CANALMANIA • The Very Great Outdoors • MONUMENT • A BRIDGES 2 • Flickr Photo Album Unlimited & Instant Posting • A HISTORY « less

Camera: Nikon D500, f/5.0, 1/100 sec, 18mm (=27mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D500
Lens:	18.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-6.3
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	18mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Lightroom 7.1.2 (Windows)
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