Cannock Extension Canal - Route

Route

The canal leaves the Wyrley and Essington Canal at Pelsall Junction. The towpath on the Wyrley and Essington is on the south bank, and so a footbridge is located just to the east of the junction, to connect to the Extension Canal's towpath, which is on the east bank. Pelsall Common North is a local nature reserve covering 92 acres (37 ha) to the west of the canal. It gives little clue that it was a thriving iron works between 1832 and 1888, providing employment for 100 people from the village of Pelsall. The company went bankrupt when iron prices dropped and the works was demolished in the 1920s. The canal heads north in a straight line from the junction. Friar Bridge, Pelsall Common Bridge, Green Bridge and Wyrley Grove Bridge cross the canal before the two former colliery basins are reached. A narrows just before the basins was the site of a railway bridge, which curved round the end of the basins to serve Wyrley Grove Colliery, located just to the north of the basins.

Pelsall Road Bridge carries the B4154 Lime Lane over the canal. A little further north on the east bank were the two basins which served Conduit Colliery. A tramway, which ran in a north-easterly direction, was built to connect the colliery to the basins. The next crossing is Watling Street, now the A5 road, and the modern canal ends here. Beyond, much of the canal was on high embankments, raised to combat subsidence, but traffic no longer justified the costs of maintenance, and the northerly section was closed in 1963. The next bridge was Northgreen Bridge, beyond which there was a wharf, and the first of several large brick overflow weirs. After New Road Bridge, located where the modern M6 Toll motorway crosses the course of the canal, and Foredrove Bridge, the junction with the Norton Springs Branch was marked by a large basin to the east of the canal.

The branch ran to another colliery called Conduit Colliery. By 1888 it ended where a railway siding crossed it course, part of the LNWR Fiveways Branch, which joined the North Staffordshire Line Norton Branch to the east of the basin. The Norton Branch railway crossed the canal branch immediately above the basin, and then crossed the main line of the canal. There was another basin after the bridge, and the canal turned to the west. The railway recrossed the canal after Hednesford Road Bridge. After Norton Common Bridge, Badger Bridge, and two more bridges which were unnamed in 1884, the route turned to the north-west, and there was a basin to the north of the canal, which served the Cannock and Leacroft Colliery. A railway line joined the two, which passed through a short tunnel to emerge by the basin. Immediately after the basin entrance, Washbrook Lane crossed at High Bridge, and then the thirteen locks of the Churchbridge Branch turned off at Rumer Hill Junction, descending in a straight line to the south west.

At Rumer Hill, a short spur was connected to a railway which ran to Mid Cannock Colliery, which was disused by 1888. The canal turned to the north, and its course lies under the modern A460 road. Three more bridges followed. The middle one was near the hamlet of Mill Green, and its site now lies beneath the roundabout where the A460 and the A5190 Lichfield Road meet. Another brick weir was located on the west bank, just before the start of a large embankment. The road to Hawk's Green passed through the embankment, at the site of the modern Hawk's Green roundabout. The London and North Western Railway Norton Extension Branch crossed at an angle, and there was one more bridge before the two basins at Hednesford. A siding from the Norton Extension Railway ran alongside the canal for this final stretch, to connect to what had once been the Littleworth Tramway, built for the opening of the canal, to serve collieries in the area, including the East Cannock Colliery, the Cannock Chase Colliery, and the Cannock and Wimblebury Colliery.