Digbeth Branch Canal

Digbeth Branch Canal (BCN)

Legend Aston Junction, Aston locks (8) Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Start of Digbeth Branch Canal Love Lane Lister Street Footbridge (Heneage Street) Ashtead Top Lock Ashtead Tunnel, A47 road (Jennens Road) Belmont Row Curzon Street Ashtead Bottom Lock Tunnel Curzon Street railway station, dismantled railway line West Coast Main Railway Line (Proof House Rail Junction) Birmingham Proof House Typhoo Basin, Digbeth (Proof House) Junction Banana warehouse, Warwick Bar stop lock Fellows Moreton Clayton warehouse Granville Wharf (The Bond, Ice House) Aqueduct over River Rea Disused railway viaduct Great Barr Street End of Digbeth Branch Canal Bordesley Junction, Grand Union Canal (to Salford Junction) Grand Union Canal (to Warwick), Camp Hill Locks (6)

Aston Junction. The Digbeth Branch Canal begins, top right.

Locks on the Digbeth Branch

Proof House Junction

The Warwick Bar stop lock and Banana Warehouse

Bordesley Junction

The Digbeth Branch Canal in Birmingham, England is a short canal which links the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction and the Grand Union Canal at Digbeth Junction (or historically, at the adjacent Warwick Bar) in Digbeth.

Built under the Birmingham Canal Act 1768 and completed in 1799 the Digbeth Branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations took traffic from the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal and the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (now both part of the Grand Union Canal) towards the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at the Worcester Bar (Gas Street Basin).

The 1¼ mile long canal canal has six locks leading down from Aston Junction. It passes through a grade II listed tunnel at the east of Curzon Street railway station (originally carrying the main lines from it) and under the viaduct of today's eastbound railway line from New Street station. It then originally met the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal at the Warwick Bar stop lock just to the rear of Birmingham Proof House, at which there is a short branch to the Typhoo Basin. The junction is called Digbeth Junction or Proof House Junction. It has a total fall of 40 feet.

All of the canal between Ashted Lock at Jennens Road (formerly the A47) and Great Barr Street (Bordesley) is within the Warwick Bar Conservation Area.

Features

Point	Coordinates
Aston Junction	52.49020°N 1.88850°W / 52.49020; -1.88850 (Aston Junction)
Ashted Lock	52.48625°N 1.88401°W / 52.48625; -1.88401 (Ashted Lock)
Ashted tunnel North portal	52.48187°N 1.88191°W / 52.48187; -1.88191 (Ashted tunnel North portal)
Ashted tunnel South portal	52.48080°N 1.88295°W / 52.48080; -1.88295 (Ashted tunnel South portal)
Railway viaduct	52.48082°N 1.88451°W / 52.48082; -1.88451 (Railway viaduct)
Proof House Junction	52.48028°N 1.88411°W / 52.48028; -1.88411 (Proof House Junction)
Warwick Bar	52.47985°N 1.88338°W / 52.47985; -1.88338 (Warwick Bar)
River Rea	52.47897°N 1.88192°W / 52.47897; -1.88192 (River Rea)
Great Barr Street	52.47783°N 1.87996°W / 52.47783; -1.87996 (Great Barr Street)
Bordesley Junction	52.47565°N 1.87719°W / 52.47565; -1.87719 (Bordesley Junction)

References

• Perrott,David; Mosse,Jonathan (2006). Nicholson Waterways Guide 3 - Birmingham & the Heart of England. Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-721111-1. 
• Priestly, Joseph (1831). Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, Throughout Great Britain. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. 

See also

• Canals of Great Britain
• History of the British canal system

External links

• Birmingham City Council - Map of Warwick Bar Conservation Area (PDF)
• Birmingham City Council - Planning Committee designation of Warwick Bar Conservation Area 1987 (PDF)
• Details from listed building database (217017) - Curzon tunnel - grade II. Images of England. English Heritage.