Wednesbury Oak Loop

Map of Wednesbury Oak Loop (shown in pink), an original part of James Brindley's Birmingham Canal, and its modern neighbours. The canal as it stands today is shown as a solid line.
Wednesbury Oak Loop
Legend
BCN Main Line (to Wolverhampton)
"Brindley" Old Main Line
Deepfields Jn(left), Pumping station (right)
British Waterways depot
"Telford" New Main Line
Bradley Locks Branch (to Walsall Canal)
Coseley Tunnel (360 yards)
Ocker Hill Branch
Bloomfield Jn
Factory Jn, Tipton

The Wednesbury Oak Loop, sometimes known as the Bradley Arm, is a canal in the West Midlands, England. It is part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN).

The Wednesbury Oak Loop was one of the loops in the original, meandering Birmingham Canal, later called the BCN Main Line, built by James Brindley in 1770.[1] The Birmingham Canal followed an indirect route between Birmingham and Aldersley Junction, near Wolverhampton, in order to access various coal mines.

Thomas Telford started upgrades to the BCN Main Line in the 1820s, cutting a straighter, wider canal for much of the way. Following his changes a 360-yard (330 m) tunnel at Coseley opened in 1837 and bypassed the entire loop around Wednesbury Oak. The loop met the new cut at Deepfields Junction to the north of the tunnel, which marks the northern limit of Telford's route change,[1] and Bloomfield Junction to the south, which had railway wharves for the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London and North Western Railway (LNWR).[1]

The Ocker Hill Branch, authorised in the same 1768 Act of Parliament which authorised the Birmingham Canal and Wednesbury Canal, was a branch from the Wednesbury Oak Loop. At a later date a steam engine at Ocker Hill pumped water from the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch (at the 408-foot (124 m) Walsall Level) into it, feeding the 473-foot (144 m) Wolverhampton Level of the BCN. This branch became 'abandoned' in 1954 and was filled in at the start of the 1960s, with part of the infilled section being developed as the Glebefields housing estate in Tipton.

In 1849 the Bradley Locks Branch opened, connecting the loop with the Walsall Canal.[1]

In 1954, along with many other branches and canals in the BCN, much of the Wednesbury Oak Loop was given 'abandoned' status and was subsequently filled in and partly built over. The northern stretch, also sometimes known today as the Bradley Arm (not to be confused with the Bradley Branch or Bradley Locks Branch),[2] remains navigable to the British Waterways workshops built at Bradley in 1960.[1] Next to the British Waterways workshops is the modern Bradley pumping station which draws water from flooded coal mines into the Wolverhampton Level.[1]

Route

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Pearson, Michael (1989). Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations. J. M. Pearson & Associates. ISBN 0-907864-49-X. 
  2. ^ BCNS Gallery