The Ridgacre Branch is a canal branch of the Wednesbury Old Canal, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, in the West Midlands, England.
It opened in 1826 and was ¾ mile in length, running from the Wednesbury at Swan Bridge Junction, a few metres north of the New Swan Lane / Black Country New Road roundabout. From it ran the Dartmouth Branch northwards and the Halford Branch (and its branch, the Jesson Branch) southwards to collieries, both opened in 1828.[1]
Following abandonment of the Wednesbury Old Canal in 1954 and 1960, and its culverting under the Black Country New Road, the Ridgacre has been cut off from the canal network. It is in water for nearly all of its original length, although its branches have gone.
Some modern sources mark the Ridgacre as starting at Ryder's Green Junction but this is not historically correct.
| Point | Coordinates (Links to map resources) |
OS Grid Ref | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swan Bridge Junction[2] | SO988924 | Wednesbury Old Canal (junction culverted) | |
| Ridgacre Branch Swan Bridge Junction culvert | SO989924 | ||
| Ridgacre Branch New Gas Street bridge (culvert) | SO990924 | ||
| Ridgacre Branch Midland Metro (was GWR) | SO992924 | ||
| Ridgacre Branch Black Lake bridge | SO994926 | ||
| Halford Branch Junction | SO998929 | (estimated) | |
| Jesson Branch Junction | SP000925 | (estimated) | |
| Jesson Branch | SP000925 | (estimated) | |
| Halford Branch terminus | SP003927 | (estimated) | |
| Ridgacre Branch end of water | SO997929 | ||
| Ridgacre Branch terminus | SP000930 | (estimated) | |
| Dartmouth Branch Junction | SO996928 | (estimated) | |
| Dartmouth Branch | SO996934 | (estimated) (site of Coles Lane bridge) | |
| Dartmouth Branch terminus | SO995938 | (estimated) |