The Wyrley and Essington Canal

This Madasafish site is no longer supported please visit the current site at http://www.thehodgkinsons.org.uk/wyrley.htm

Virtual Walks	1 - Anglesey Basin at Chasewater to Ogley Junction (or Anglesey Junction)
Too far away to visit?	2 - Ogley Junction (or Anglesey Junction) to Catshill Junction
Don't want to go out today?	3 - Catshill Junction to Pelsall Junction
I've done it for you.	4 - Catshill Junction to Walsall Wood
Try these walks ..........	5 - Ogley Junction (or Anglesey Junction) to Huddlesford Junction
	6 - The Cannock Extension from Pelsall Junction
	7 - Pelsall Junction to Lord Hayes Branch and Onward along the Hatherton Canal (under restoration) to its Junction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Multi Media Mapping.

Wyrley and Essington Canal - 1792. First act of parliament to build between "Essington Bank" and "Wyrley Bank".

Wyrley and Essington Canal - 1794. Further act of parliament to build through to the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford. Lichfield Canal extension - 1797. Link to the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford was opened. Its seven miles contained 30 locks.

Cannock Chase Reservoir (Chasewater) - 1799. Contains 800 million gallons of water. Dam burst - in June 1799 floodwater from the Reservoir left a trail of destruction south east to Tamworth and the River Tame beyond. The flood was caused by the failure of a sluice gate at the dam.

Anglesey Branch Canal - 1850. Was built along the line of the feeder from the Cannock Chase Reservoir to connect with the W & E. Anglesey Basin was required to carry coal from mines of the area.

British Waterways Home Page "On 2 July 2012, British Waterways ceased to exist in England and Wales and in its place Canal & River Trust was set up to care for 2,000 miles of historic waterways."

Brownhills Canoe and Outdoor Centre The Club state ... "We officially opened our doors in June 2006 during the Brownhills Canal Festival
The Centre was built with funding from Active England (a joint funding programme between Sport England and the Big Lottery Fund), the European Regional Development Fund and British Waterways.
Our aim is..'to provide a venue for the community of Brownhills and the surrounding areas to take part in the sport of canoeing and other outdoor recreational pursuits' "

Canal & River Trust "We’re the new charity entrusted with the care of 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales."

LAURENCE HOGG PRODUCTIONS The maker of the Video BCN 10 "The Missing Links".
"Today, the Northern waters of the BCN are only accessible from the South, making the number of craft penetrating the top of the BCN system quite small. The situation was not always thus. The BCN has lost three major links in the course of time: the Lapal Section of the Dudley Canal to the South, the Hatherton Branch, Churchbridge Locks connection to the North West, and the Lichfield part of the Wyrley and Essington Canal to the North East. This film deals with these two lost links to the North.... David Suchet introduces the film and then takes you on a tour of the routes. We look back at the history and examine in detail all of the sections including the parts which are lost for ever..........."

Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust was formed in 1988 and is a registered charity. It campaigns for the restoration of the "Lichfield Canal" (as the closed section of the W&E between Ogley and Huddlesford is now called) and also the Hatherton Canal through the Cannock / A5 area. It promotes the restoration as public amenities for boating, angling, walking, cycling etc. and raises funds to carry out physical restoration work.

"The Other Sixty Miles - A survey of the abandoned canals of Birmingham and the Black Country" by Richard Chester-Browne - BCN Society 1981 & 1991

"THE OTHER SIXTY MILES
A survey of the Abandoned Canals of Birmingham and the Black Country by R Chester-Browne
This book is based on the result of a survey of the abandoned canals of Birmingham and the Black Country that I carried. out during my years as a student in 1974-7, with some later amendments. It does not set out to be a full history of the abandoned branches, though I have included a certain amount of historical and other information of general interest to set the remains in perspective. Further information can be obtained from some of the books listed in the bibliography. Destruction of the remains of these canals is continually taking place, and the BCN Society and I would be pleased to receive details of any changes and / or corrections to the book. In the years since the first edition of this book was published,
the loss to navigation of the Anson Branch has been counteracted by the restoration of the Ridgacre Branch. Hopefully in the next few years, the long term stoppages at Dudley Tunnel and Walsall Wharf will be concluded and these waterways will not need to be added to the next edition. Schemes are also underway, or have been proposed, to restore the Hatherton Branch, the Wyrley & Essington, Bradley Locks and, more optimistically, the Dudley No.2 Canal. The photographs in this book are my own, with the exception of that on the back cover by Kelvin Lake. My good friend Marcus Boudier, who drew the maps for this
book died in a boating accident in 1986. I would like to dedicate this edition to his memory. R. Chester-Browne. Culcheth, Cheshire Iuly 1991"

	Brownhills canal view of the 1950's while the route was still in commercial use.
Walsall's new art gallery at the end of the Walsall Extention of the W&E	...and the state of the canal a few years previous.
The scale of work needed to bring a lock back to life.	The efforts needed to plug a hole in the bottom of a stretch of canal. Just north of the Anchor Bridge, Brownhills. (at the junction of High Street, Lindon Road and Chester Road)