Days 6 and 7 - Staffordshire & Worcestershire to Wolverhampton

The Staffordshire & Worcestershire (Staffs and Worcs) Canal runs through softly undulating West Midlands countryside. It skirts around the edges of Birmingham without ever becoming truly urban. It was built by James Brindley between 1766 and 1772 and he planned to join the Severn and the Trent Rivers thus providing an outlet for Black Country coal.

At its northern end, after leaving the Trent & Mersey Canal in Staffordshire, it passes the grounds of the grand Shugborough Estate then runs through the wild pine woods and heathland of Cannock Chase then heads south through Penkridge, Gailey, Calf Heath and Coven Heath. This section of the Staffs and Worcs also meets several other canals including the Hatherton, Shropshire Union and Old Main Line Canal.

Staffs and Worcs Canal to Old Main Line Canal

The Hatherton Canal is a derelict branch that carried coal from a number of coal mines in the vicinity of Cannock until 1949.  Movements of coal down the Churchbridge flight were around 12,000 tons per month in 1902. It was abandoned in 1955, after which the Churchbridge flight of locks and much of the Extension Canal were destroyed by open cut mining and mine subsidence. Plans for its restoration began in 1975.

Hatherton Canal Restoration Plans

The estimated cost of restoring this abandoned section and building the new route to the Wyrley and Essington Canal was estimated at £44.1 million in 2009. Much of the work is being done by volunteers working for the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust.

Lock Restoration

The Shropshire Union Canal connects with the Staffs and Worcs at Autherley Junction and takes narrowboaters travelling north all the way to the Roman town of Chester near the Welsh border then onto Ellesmere Port on the Mersey River not far inland from Liverpool. The Shropshire Union was not completed until 1835 and was the last major civil engineering accomplishment of Thomas Telford. It was also the last trunk narrow canal route to be built in England.

Old Main Line Canal connects with the Staffs and Worcs and heads south east towards the heart of the city of Birmingham from Aldersley Junction and forms part of the network of canals in Birmingham known as the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

Birmingham Canal Navigations

This section of the Staffs and Worcs includes some very interesting canal and historic features as depicted below.

Tixall Gatehouse - a 16th-century gatehouse situated at Tixall Wide, near Stafford. It is all that remains of Tixall Hall which was demolished in 1927. Tixall was used a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots for two weeks in 1586.

Tixall Gatehouse

Shugborough Tunnel - A rail tunnel about halfway between Stafford and Rugeley in Staffordshire that runs beneath the Shugborough Estate. It remains in use on the west coast main line and is the largest engineering work on the Trent Valley Railway line. From the Staffs and Worcs we caught glimpses of the tunnel portal which of course is constructed in sympathy with the other historic buildings on the estate.

The west portal is topped by a pair of heritage listed battlemented towers, with flanking walls leading to further ornate towers.

Shugborough Tunnel West Portal

Thomas Anson (1st Earl of Lichfield) of Shugborough Hall insisted that the railway should be put into a tunnel or diverted away from his land. The tunnel option was chosen and Shugborough Tunnel carries the railway under the north flank of the Satnall Hills, beneath the estate.

Shugborough Hall

Gailey Watch Tower - A lock keeper's tower at Gailey. This toll keeper's watch tower was necessary because the view northwards along the canal was obscured from the lock-side by Gailey Bridge. The Gailey lock is at the northern end of the Staffs and Worcs canal's summit pound.

Gailey Watch Tower

The Bratch Locks are a noted feature of the Staffs and Worcs Canal, planned by James Brindley, and opened in 1772 as a three lock staircase.

After operating a few dozen locks most boaters feel thoroughly at home with the procedure but an encounter with staircase locks can give pause for thought to even the more experienced crew.

Standard Single Lock Operation

Going Down	Going Up
is simply a matter of letting the water out of the other end until the same level is reached, then opening the gate(s) to proceed on the lower level.	is just a matter of letting water in the lock from the higher level, until again, the water in the lock is level with that above, then proceeding on the higher level.

A lock staircase (used when space is tight), is two (or more) adjacent locks where the upper gates of one lock serve as the lower gates of the next.

The method of operating staircase locks is somewhat different from that used for single locks. The basic principals are :

Staircase Lock Operation

Going Down	Going Up
Start with the top (first) lock filled and the others empty then let the water pass from the top chamber to the second chamber, open the common gate proceed into the second chamber then repeat.	Start with the bottom (first) lock empty and the others full then let the water pass from the second chamber to the first chamber, open the common gate proceed into the second chamber then repeat.

As this can be a difficult concept to come to grips with here is a video that helps explain the procedure.

[Click to watch video]

As you might expect the staircase lock was a later development than the single pound locks, of the type that are usual on our waterways, but lock staircases had been in use for over a hundred years before the start of Britain's canal age.

Staircase locks provide interest for the boater, historian or towpath walker. Many feature in our best known waterway views; Fort Augustus on the Caledonian, Bingley Five Rise on the Leeds & Liverpool, and Foxton on the Grand Union all present impressive sights rising steeply up hillsides, but there are plenty more to be found, perhaps not all so spectacular but each with its own charm and interest.

Bratch Locks Instructions

In order to save water the Bratch Locks were later re-engineered as three separate locks with side storage pounds but separate paddles for releasing and re-admitting water into the chambers it is still a unique and potentially confusing experience. The Canal and River Trust thoughtfully provides a permanent lockkeeper at these locks.

Eleanor (Angus at the helm) passing from the top chamber to the centre chamber

So that's it for now. More on the Staffs and Worcs Canal next time.

The Skipper.