Cannock Extension Canal - History

History

Following a period of negotiations, the Birmingham Canal Navigations had been leased by the London and Birmingham Railway from November 1845. The lease meant that the railway company had to authorise all new works where the cost exceeded £500. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1846 to legalise the agreement, by which time the London and Birmingham Railway had become part of the London and North Western Railway. The canal company had made a number of additions to their system in the 1840s, which had been successful in generating new traffic, and they embarked on another programme in 1854. The railway company did not object, although it imposed a condition that dividends paid to shareholders would be restricted to 4 per cent until the cost of the new works had been paid. The scheme included replacing Delph Locks on the Dudley Canal, an extension to Lord Hay's Branch, and the construction of the Cannock Extension Canal, including two feeder tramways.

The canal was opened to Rumer Hill Junction in 1858 and its 5.6-mile (9.0 km) length was fully open by 1863. A connection was made to the Hatherton Canal, a branch of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, at Churchbridge Junction via the Churchbridge Branch, which had thirteen locks. An agreement between the two companies was reached in 1854, before the Cannock Extension Canal had been built, and the cost of the land for the Churchbridge Branch was shared, but when the locks were built in 1858 and 1859, it appears that the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal funded the work alone. Traffic down through the Churchbridge lock flight, which originated on the Extension Canal, was around 12,000 tons per month in 1902.

As with many canals which served coal mines, subsidence was an increasing problem as the mines expanded underground. The canal side walls near Leacroft Wharf had to be rebuilt in 1934 after severe damage from subsidence. The canal company was extremely worried about the possibility of the canal breaching, and to lessen the effects should a breach occur, safety gates were fitted at a number of locations. At Northwood Bridge, there were two pairs of gates, one facing in each direction, which were designed to close if there was a large flow of water. The two sets of gates protected against a breach on either side of the bridge. In 1960, part of the canal sunk by 21 feet (6.4 m), and commercial traffic effectively stopped the following year because of the problems. The 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of Watling Street were abandoned in 1963. The Churchbridge Branch became disused around 1953 and the whole branch and Rumer Hill Junction were later obliterated by opencast mining.

In view of the destruction of the Churchbridge Branch, the Hatherton Canal restoration plan included a proposal for a Churchbridge bypass, which would create a link to Grove Basin, but environmental concerns and objections from landowners have resulted in a revised route being identified, which will link the canal to the Lord Hayes branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal, a little further to the west than Pelsall Junction.