Wednesbury Old Canal

Wednesbury Old Canal leaves the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line at Pudding Green Junction. There is a towpath bridge over the junction, and almost immediately, the canal is crossed by Albion Road bridge. In the 1900s, this was a site of industrial activity, with the Albion Blue Brick & Tile Works to the east of the canal, served by a basin, the Roway Iron Works to the west, served by a basin, and a coal pit to the east, again with a basin. Other premises included Nelson Iron Works, Wood Lane Iron Works, Vulcan Tube Works and Bushfarm Iron Works, most of which had small basins. The canal then passed under Greets Green Road. Heavy industry has been replaced by industrial units. The towpath is initially on the east bank, but crosses to the west at a turnover bridge, after passing Conveyor Bridge. The area is part of Greets Green, and the bridge carrying Greets Green Road is now called Belper Bridge. To the north of the bridge were the four Greets Green basins, which served collieries. They have all gone, and a footbridge crosses the canal near the former site of Ryders Green Tar Works. At Ryders Green Junction the Walsall Canal begins its descent down the eight Ryder's Green Locks. Just before the locks Wednesbury Old Canal veers off and commences its meandering route through Swan Village. It is crossed by Hadley Bridge, carrying the B4149 Phoenix Road and by Swan Bridge, carrying Great Bridge Street. There is a winding hole beyond the bridge, after which further progress is blocked by the low bridge of the Black Country Spine Road. The bridge is on the site of Swan Bridge Junction, where the Ridgacre Branch continued to the east and the Wednesbury Old Canal turned to the north. The Wednesbury Canal is dry from Swan Bridge onwards, but the Ridgacre Branch continues, with its main line watered for most of its original length. Although inaccessible to boats, it is now used for fishing, for walking, and is a valued wildlife habitat. Some modern sources mark the Ridgacre as starting at Ryder's Green Junction but this is not historically correct. ==History==

The Wednesbury Canal was part of the first phase of the Birmingham Canal (the first around the Black Country or Birmingham). The Birmingham Canal Navigation Act 1768 (8 Geo. 3. c. 38) authorised construction of the Birmingham Canal and branches to Wednesbury and Ocker Hill. On 6 November 1769 the Wednesbury Branch was completed, and coal could be delivered from the Wednesbury collieries to Paradise Street, some away. A poem was published celebrating the reduction in retail coal prices to mark the event. It was another three years before the Birmingham Canal reached Wolverhampton, with the final flight of locks opening on 21 September 1772. It started at what is now Spon Lane Junction on the Wolverhampton Level and descended the three remaining Spon Lane locks to the Birmingham Level. Its length was . It terminated at Balls Hill Basin, not far from the later Tame Valley Canal. The Ridgacre Branch opened in 1826 and was in length. It ran from the Wednesbury Old Canal at Swan Bridge Junction, a short distance north of the New Swan Lane / Black Country New Road roundabout. It had two branches, with the Dartmouth Branch running northwards and the Halford Branch running southwards to collieries. Parts of the Wednesbury Old Canal were abandoned as a result of Acts of Parliament passed in 1954 and 1960. The section from Brickhouse Lane Bridge to its terminus near Holloway Bank was closed under the British Transport Commission Act 1954, Recent road developments at Swan Bridge Junction have severed the connection to the remaining, navigable canal, and have also severed the Ridgacre Branch from the canal network. When plans were drawn up for the Black Country Spine Road in 1992, they included the provision of a navigable culvert under the road near the Swan Bridge roundabout, with headroom of . The canal would have been made narrower, to make the bridge construction easier. The existing junction with the turning head for the Balls Hill Branch would have been closed and a new entrance created slightly further to the east, with a new towpath bridge built over the entrance. However, the deposited plans were not followed when the new road was built, and the bridges didn't allow enough headroom for boats to pass, effectively closing the Ridgacre Branch. In practice, even the section up to the new bridge is badly overgrown and unlikely to be navigable throughout. ==Wednesbury Canal original features==