Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
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The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England.
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[edit] Route
The canal, built between 1793 and 1812, runs 25 miles in total, comprising of two sections.
The southern section starts at the River Avon in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, and stretches north as far as Kingswood Junction near Lapworth, Warwickshire where it is connected to the Grand Union Canal by a short spur.
The northern section continues, to join the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Kings Norton Junction in the suburbs of Birmingham.
[edit] Features
The southern section of the canal passes over three cast iron aqueducts, unusual in that the towpaths are at the level of the canal bottom.
Travelling north, from Stratford-upon-Avon, the first is the Edstone Aqueduct near Bearley which at 250 yards, is the longest in England. Beneath this aqueduct is also the trackbed of the Alcester Railway, (absorbed into the Great Western Railway which ran between Bearley and Alcester, where it joined the Midland Railway's branch line between Redditch and Evesham. There was once a pipe from the side of the canal that enabled locomotives to draw water to fill the loco's tank.
The second is the Wootton Wawen Aqueduct, just outside Wootton Wawen, where the canal crosses the A3400 main road.
The third aqueduct is the more modest Yarningdale Aqueduct which carries the canal over a small stream near Preston Bagot, Warwickshire. This cast iron aqueduct was built in 1834 to replace the original wooden structure which was washed away when the stream flooded that year.
There is only one tunnel on the canal - at Brandwood near Kings Norton Junction at the northern end.
Another interesting feature of the canal are the unique barrel-roofed lock keeper's cottages to be found along its length.
[edit] History
By the late 1940s the canal had become completely derelict. The later restoration by voluntary effort, including prisoners from Winson Green, was a turning point for the waterways movement in Britain.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. Canal Junction.
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