Guide to Cruising the Birmingham Canal Navigations on Charter Hotelboat Willow

Birminghan Canal Navigations:(Adjacent canals can be viewed with the above links)
Birmingham was a city (second largest in the UK) that wasn't built on a river navigation, like virtually all other major cities. Birmingham's growth came later, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, and it was built on a canal system not a river. There is a whole range of miscellaneous photos in the following gallery - just to give a flavour to the place. Surprisingly, we don't seem to have any photos on file for the smartly rejuvenated Old Turn Junction and Gas Street Basin area. Right in the fashionable centre of Birmingham, with it's attractive foot bridges, Bistros, and water taxis. No muddy towpaths here - we will have to remedy the lack of photos when we visit in the the next cruising season, it is an area well worth visiting.


	Secure overnight moorings beside the Black Country Museum, looking towards the east portal of the Dudley Tunnel.	Fish & Chips made using real dripping bought for lunch at the Black Country Museum - Naughty but delicious!	Staff at the museum dress for the occasion - a visit is well worth it.	Tunnels & High Bridges - BCN style.

So a résumé of the BCN. The Stourbridge canal links the Staffs & Worcs canal at Stourton with the heart of the English Canal System that is (collectively known as) the Birmingham Canal Navigation - referred to as the ‘BCN’. The BCN is not just one canal but a whole system of canals. There are more canals in the Birmingham city area than there are in Venice - and they’re cleaner too. The BCN is largely an urban system of canals that provided a transport system serving the many factories, and mines, in the Birmingham area. Being close to the heart of Brindley's 'Great Cross' canal transport system, Birmingham was thus given the transport system which made it the most important industrial area of it's time (in the country if not the world). It was the Industrial Revolution in the making - all brought about by our canal system.

Not known for being particularly pretty it is nevertheless interesting in terms of canal heritage. Much rejuvenation work has taken place in the centre of the city around the ’Gas Street’ area - now with it’s canalside yuppie bistros. We regularly visit Gas Street and even more frequently visit the Black Country Museum. No visit to the BCN should miss a visit to the museum - nor the adjacent Dudley tunnel and it’s canal trip into the limestone caverns of the tunnel (operated by a charity Dudley Tunnel Trust) - excellent value.

The Stourbridge takes us up onto the BCN (Birmingham area was built on a wide hill) from the West side from the Staffs & Worcs canal via the Delph flight of locks and via the Netherton Tunnel. To the North we enter the BCN by climbing the Wolverhampton 21 flight of locks. From the South and East we climb in via the Farmers Bridge locks from the Birmingham and Fazeley (from the East) and from the Grand Union (from the South). From the Southwest the Worcester & Birmingham canal enters the centre through Gas Street basin. That entry point to the BCN is the only one on the same level - all the climbing was done earlier at the Tardebigge flight.


Do all the vehicles travelling on the M5 above know that there is a 20 ton narrowboat travelling in the same direction for about a mile - directly below them. A bit of fun.	Factory overhead - our tall pipe (that's the engine exhaust pipe) just fits under.	Aston Junction, heading for the B'ham & Fazeley canal, just one route down off the BCN (Brum was built up on a hill)....	.... and looking back at Aston junction. But we have to say that this part of Birmingham is not our favourite route.

Running along the North/South spine of the BCN we have two main line canals, linking Wolverhampton to the north with Birmingham City Centre to the south. Firstly we have our favourite, ‘the old main line’ aka the ‘Wolverhampton level’, and secondly we have the ‘new main line’ (a bit straight for my liking). Taking the old main line we pass underneath the arches of the flyover bridges, carrying the M5 motorway, following underneath for about a mile - a bet the motorists just don’t realise that there are seventy foot boats travelling along underneath their carriageway - and that they were there first. Leaving the motorway section, the old main line curves backwards and forwards around industrial factory sites - believe it or not, it's very interesting boating. Off the main lines we have the city loops - all a bit of fun.

We could enter or leave the BCN via the Birmingham & Fazeley canal - but we prefer not to. In my view it's an ugly barren looking canal with a reputation for vandals and druggies - not something that the average holiday maker would want to experience.

We do, however, happily leave the centre of Birmingham via the Worcester and Birmingham canal, passing Birmingham's 'flash' "Mailbox" area. The suburbs in this direction are pleasant, passing Edgebaston an the University. This would be the route to the River Severn at Worcester - although we prefer the route via Stratford and the Avon.

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