The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal provided a navigable link between the
River Severn and Birmingham, and had been opened in May 1772. It served Stafford by the provision of a wharf at Radford Bank, but goods had to be transferred to carts for the final journey into the town. The first proposals for a navigable link to Stafford were made in 1798. The scheme involved aqueducts to cross the
River Sow and the
River Penk, but the canal was not built. In order to supply Stafford, a horse
tramway was constructed from the town to Radford Wharf, which opened on 1 November 1805. The Stafford Railway Coal and Lime Company owned the tramway, on which horses hauled wagons capable of holding around 1.5 tons of coal or lime. The terminus was by Green Bridge in Stafford, but it appears that it was not a profitable concern, as John Hall, one of the four owners, sold his £810 share in the business for £254 in 1811, and the company was bankrupt by 1813. The canal was privately built, as all the land through which it ran was owned by Sir George William Jerningham, later
Lord Stafford. A lease for its use was initially held by Messrs Fereday and Company who owned Gornal colliery. This was later transferred to the Moat Colliery Company, and in 1838, they sold it to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal company for £50. Subsequently, the branch was improved and the tolls were reduced.
Restoration With the steady progress made in restoring and reopening canals during the 1970s, members of a local canal society first suggested that the navigation could be restored in 1975. It was seen as a way to ease congestion on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, and the group suggested that the appropriate authorities should review the possibilities. The next significant event was the publishing of a letter in
Waterways World in August 2002, in which a resident of Stafford called Keith Taylor stated that he had found the remains of the lock. The towpath had by then become a recognised walking route, and his suggestion that the navigation should be explored led to research by a number of others, and the formation of Stafford Riverway Link, a group which would spearhead the restoration and attempt to gain local authority support for it. The group became a
community interest company in December 2009. Because of the flood relief work and the diversion of the River Penk, the
Environment Agency are unlikely to approve the reinstatement of the aqueduct. A feasibility study for reconstruction, carried out by the engineers
Halcrow Group, has therefore suggested a lock much closer to the junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, to connect the canal to the River Penk. The new route would either follow the Penk downstream to its junction with the Sow, or a new cut would be made between the two. The initial proposal is to reach a temporary terminus just below Green Bridge, close to the
Asda Supermarket. The estimated cost for a navigation with a channel which is deep is £4.7 million. In the longer term, the aim is for the terminus to be at Victoria Park, a little way upstream from the town centre, and this would increase the cost to £6 million. Significant progress was made in early 2021, when Stafford Borough Council granted planning permission for the first stage of the project. This involves the creation of a basin at Baswich with 12 berths, reinstatement of the junction into the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, and the construction of a bridge across the junction to carry users of the towpath and farm vehicles. Prior to receiving permission, the company had already excavated part of the basin, as they had been leasing the land on a peppercorn rent from Eunice Finney, in accordance with the wishes of her late husband Bill. ==Route==