The Branches
The Grand Junction's original act in 1793 authorised branches to Daventry, the River Nene at Northampton, to the turnpike road at Old Stratford (north-west of the modern Milton Keynes), and to Watford in Hertfordshire: those to Daventry and Watford were not built. The branch to Old Stratford was amended before it was built (see below). The branch to Northampton was delayed as the plans of the Leicester and Northampton Union Canal to reach Northampton and thus join with the Grand Junction came to nothing. The link to Northampton was made by a tramroad transferred from Blisworth Tunnel, with the 5-mile (8-kilometre) canal from Gayton being opened in 1815. The link to Leicester was eventually achieved by the opening of the Grand Union Canal, which took a more direct route from Foxton in Leicestershire to the Grand Junction at Norton Junction.
The 1794 act authorised three further branches, to Aylesbury, Buckingham, and Wendover. The 6.5-mile (10.5-kilometre) navigable feeder from Wendover to the summit level at Tring was opened in 1799, while the 10.5-mile (17 kilometre) Buckingham branch, an extension of the original proposal for a link to the main road at Old Stratford, was opened in 1801: both eventually fell into disuse, though the Wendover Arm is undergoing active restoration, and part of it is again navigable. The Aylesbury arm was envisaged to become a through route to the Thames and thus the Wilts and Berks Canal and Kennet and Avon Canal, but the 6-mile (10-kilometre) branch into the town, opened in 1815, was never extended.
The act of April 1795 authorised a 13.5-mile (22-kilometre) branch to Paddington from Bull's Bridge near Hayes: this was completed in 1801, and with its large basin at Paddington and many wharfs along its length it became an important trade route, even more so with the subsequent opening of the Regent's Canal. This branch also acted as a source of water from the River Brent.
The act of June 1795 authorised a branch to St Albans: this was not built.
The last branch to be authorised and built was the 5-mile (8-kilometre) route to Slough, opened in 1882.
Read more about this topic: Grand Junction Canal
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