Birmingham to Kingswood Junction (near Lapworth) along The Grand Union Canal.

Features, locks, tunnels which can be found on The Grand Union Canal from the start of the canal in Birmingham via Ashtead Locks and Knowle Locks to Kingswood Junction.

The Grand Union Canal Main Line seems to officially start at Salford Junction in Birmingham - it soon reaches a canal junction at Bordesley where it is joined by the Digbeth Arm. The Digbeth Arm itself could also perhaps be considered part of The Grand Union Canal. Generally speaking our Grand Union Canal photos show the bridges and locks involved on the canal's route south looking from both directions however each time we have visited Birmingham the smog and unhelpful sunshine angle has meant we only have photos from Salford Junction to Bordesley Junction from one direction i.e. as if heading north.
Sadly one of the "features" in this part of Birmingham is the appalling amount of graffiti everywhere - just about anything flat has been scribbled and painted on by these morons. Whilst wandering along the towpath we stopped to talk to some people - they said that much of the crap had been cleaned up at considerable expense but the delinquents had re-covered it all with their mess within weeks. This is a real shame because some of the old bridges as well as many of the canal-side warehouses etc. have obviously got lovely brickwork and shapes.

The Grand Union Canal Main Line's Bridges, Locks and Features from Salford Junction south to Bordesley Junction.

Salford Junction Bridge	Grand Union Canal crossing the River Tame on an aqueduct	Salford Junction Bridge 110	River Tame being crossed via an aqueduct at Salford Junction	Pipe Bridge immediately before Salford Junction	Original site of Nechells Shallows Lock
Three particularly nice pipe bridges	Cuckoo Road Bridge	Pipebridge	Another Pipebridge	Railway Bridge no.6	Aston Church Roadbridge
Bridge with no name	Salteley Viaduct	Double roadbridge no.108aa	Railway Bridge no.5	Railway Bridge no.4 (Bridge 108a)	Bridge no.108
Bridge no.107	Garrison Lock no.5 ( 63 )	Garrison Locks - Lock no.5 ( 63 )	Bridge no.106	Garrison Locks - Lock no.4 ( 62 )	Garrison Locks - Lock no.4 ( 62 )
Garrison Locks - Lock no.3 ( 61 )	Bridge no.105	Garrison Locks - Lock no.2 ( 60 )	Garrison Locks - Lock no.2 ( 60 )	Railway Bridge 3	Pipebridge at Garrison Lock no.1

In the Nicholson Waterways Guide the locks comprising the Garrison Lock Flight are shown numbered in a 60's sequence however these locks are actually marked as we have shown i.e. no.1 no.2 etc. - the book's numbering is shown in ( )s

Garrison Bridge + Railway Bridge 2	Railway Bridge 2 + Garrison Street Bridge	Garrison Lock 1 and Railway Bridge no.2	Garrison Locks - Lock no.1 (59)	Railway Bridge no.1	Artillery Street Bridge no.104
Artillery Street Bridge no.104	Garrison Lane Bridge no.103	Footbridge no.102a	Footbridge no.102a	Dartmouth Street Bridge no.102	Dartmouth Street Bridge no.102
St Andrews Road Bridge no.101	St Andrews Road Bridge no.101	Site of Bolton Street Bridge 100	Bridge no.100a + Bridge no.99	Bridge no.100a	Pipes and Bridge no.99
Girders and Bridge no.99	Girders + Bridge 98	Overhanging warehouse	Bridge no.98	Bridge no.98	Bordesley Junction's Bridge

Photos of The Digbeth Canal Arm which runs South from Birmingham's Aston Junction down to Bordesley Junction via Typhoo Basin.

Aston Junction	Bridge at Aston Junction	Love Lane Bridge	Love Lane Bridge	Lister Street Bridge	Lister Street Bridge
Pipe and Heneage Street Bridge	Pipe and Heneage Street Bridge	Short sidearm near Lock no.1	Ashted Locks 1 - lockgates	Ashted Locks no.1	Northern end of Ashted Tunnel

The fairly narrow Ashted Tunnel is 94 metres in length and only able to accommodate boats passing through it in one direction at a time - there is a railed towpath inside the tunnel though if on foot you may need to be careful of not banging your head as the tunnel's roof is quite curved on the sides. When exiting from the northern end of the tunnel you are immediately faced with the lock-gates of the first of the Ashted Lock Flight (Lock1).

View from inside Ashted Tunnel	Southern entrance to Ashted Tunnel	Ashted Locks no.2	Ashted Locks no.2 - lockgates	Ashted Locks no.3 and no.2	Ashted Locks no.3
Pipe and Ashted Locks no.3	Lock3 - Pipe - Belmont Row St Bridge	Belmont Row Bridge	Ashted Locks no.4	Ashted Locks no.4 - gates	Curzon Street Bridge
Ashted Locks no.5	Pipes and Curzon St. Bridge	Ashted Locks no.6	Ashted Locks no.6	Curzon Street Tunnel	Inside Curzon St. Tunnel
Curzon Street Tunnel	Junction and Railway Bridges	Junction Bridge by Typhoo Basin	Junction Bridge	Junction Bridges	Typhoo Basin area

Curzon Street Tunnel is wide enough for boats to pass through in both directions - the tunnel is 147 metres long and has a railed towpath along its route. When looking at a map it's apparent that really the tunnel is just a series of joined up railway bridges - there are six railway lines going across the top, the rest of the top area seems to be wasteground where once there must have been some large warehouses or similar - now demolished.

Opened in 1799 the 1.25 mile long Digbeth Branch links the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction with the Grand Union Canal at Digbeth Junction. The drop of 40 feet is achieved by use of six locks at Ashted Lock Flight. Typhoo Basin was so named because of the huge Typhoo Tea Building located there although to be correct it should actually be called the Digbeth Basin. As you wander along the canals in Birmingham you often come across short side-arms or at least can see where they once were. These mini-inlets - which often were only a few hundred yards long - were an extension to simply having wharfs along the actual canal and provided the "off-canal" needs for a group of factories or warehouses. Sadly many of these side-arms have been filled in or blocked off although you can tell where they were as the towpath will just climb up and over a nicely brick built arm-entrance.

Typhoo Basin

Digbeth Junction Bridge

Stoplock atDigbeth Junction

Stop Lock

Lovely old canal warehouse

Digbeth aqueduct

Nice railway bridge and Bridge no.95	Pipebridge then Bridge 95 + then railway bridges	General view of Bordesley Junction	Bordesley Junction	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.57	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.57

With the Digbeth Arm joining at Bordesley the Grand Union Canal heads South - these are the Canal's locks and bridges as far as Kingswood (just outside of Lapworth).

The Grand Union's towpath heading south is in excellent condition for both cyclists and walkers however the amount of graffiti is amazing - every lock arm, the lock-gates, various signs, once beautiful old brick walls and even drain covers - everything and anything with a semblance of a flat surface is just covered in this crap. You have to go quite a way out of Birmingham - in fact some way past Solihull - before this disgusting vandalism starts to reduce.

Bridge no.94	Bridge no.94	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.56	Camp Hill Lock 56 + Pipebridge	Bridge no.93	Bridge no.93
Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.55	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.55	Bordesley Middle Way Bridge no.2	Bordesley Middle Way Bridge no.2	Bordesley Middle Way Bridge no.1	Bordesley Middle Way Bridge no.1
Lock 54 and a Railway Bridge	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.54 gates	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.54	Railway Bridge	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.53	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.53
Railway Bridge	Railway Bridge	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.52	Camp Hill Locks - Lock no.52	Short siding near Lock no.52	Small Heath Bridge no.91
Small Heath bridge no.91	Canal-side warehouses at Small Heath	Anderton Road Bridge no.90	Anderton Road Bridge no.90	Golden Hillock Roadbridge no.89	Golden Hillock Roadbridge no.89
Siding at Small Heath	Bridge no.88c	Bridge no.88c	Railway Bridge no.88b	Ackers Trust Basin	Railway Bridge no.88b
Pipe Bridge	Aqueduct over the River Cole	Aqueduct over the River Cole	Bridge no.88a	Bridge no.88a	Kings Road Bridge no.88
Kings Road Bridge no.88	Bridge no.87	Pipebridge + Bridge no.87	Yardley Road Bridge no.86a	Inside Yardley RoadBridge 86a	Yardley Road Bridge no.86a
Woodcock Lane Bridge no.86	Woodcock Lane Bridge no.86	Pipebridge near bridge 86	Pipebridge near bridge 86	Bridge no.85	Bridge no.85
Pipebridge + Bridge 84	Bridge no.84	Bridge no.83	Bridge no.83	Bridge no.82	Bridge near Solihull
Bridge no.82	Bridge no.81	Bridge no.81	Rowood Bridge no.80	Rowood Bridge no.85	Pipebridge + FootBridge 79a
Pipebridge + FootBridge 79a	Elmdon Heath Bridge no.79	Elmdon Heath Bridge 79 + Pipebridge	Bridge no.78a	Bridge no.78a	Catherine de Barnes Bridge no.78
Catherine de Barnes Bridge no.78	Pipebridge	PipeBridge	Henwood Bridge no.77	Syphon + Bridge no.77	The River Blythe Aqueduct
Bridge no.76	Bridge no.76	M42 Bridge no.75b	Barston Lane Bridge no.75a	Bridges nos.75a and 75b	Copt Heath Bridge no.75
Copt Heath Bridge 75	Castle Bridge no.74	Castle Bridge no.74	Waterfield Bridge no.73	Waterfield Bridge no.73	A syphon near to Bridge 72a
A syphon near Bridge 72a	Kixley Footbridge no.72a	Kixley Road Bridge no.72	Kixley Road Bridge no.72	Bridge no.71	Kixley Footbridge no.72a
Bridge no.71	Knowle Lock Flight - Lock no.51	Knowle Locks - Lock no.51 Gates	Knowle Lock Flight - Lock no.50	Knowle Locks - Lock no.50 Gates	Knowle Lock Flight - Lock no.49

Originally Knowle Locks were a series of six narrow locks but one lock was removed and the remaining five were modernised into wide locks during the 1930 Grand Union Canal Improvement. The remains of the old narrow locks are still evident as can more or less be seen on our Lock 49 photo below. Knowle Locks are the northernmost wide locks on the Grand Union Canal - from here and north on into Birimingham all the canal locks are narrow.

Knowle Locks - Lock no.49	Knowle Lock Flight - Lock no.48	Knowle Locks - Lock no.48 Gates	View of Knowle Locks	Knowle Lock Flight - Lock no.47	Knowle Locks - Lock no.47 Gates

Kings Arms Bridge no.70	Kings Arms Bridge no.70	Black Boy Bridge no.69	Black Boy Bridge no.69	Bakers Lane Bridge no.68	Bakers Lane Bridge no.68

Grand Union Canal Bridge no.67 is a Turnover Bridge - these nicely shaped bridges took the towpath gently up to the height of the bridge and were built fairly wide across. This allowed the horses towing the barges to cross over the canal without having to be unhitched whenever the towpath changed sides or perhaps to switch to another canal. The walkways up and down from the towpath are usually cobbled for grip.
Once you have crossed this bridge the towpath from here heading on south is in a terrible state especially if it's been raining. There are several collapses, quite high undergrowth and you have to try and get past some quite deep, slippery muddy stretches - also cyclists should watch out for one or two hidden potholes. The condition of the Canal's towpath only improves a few hundred metres from Rising Bridge 66 (which is on the western side of Lapworth).

Turnover Bridge no.67

Turnover Bridge no.67

Pipe near Bridge no.66

Pipe Bridge

Rising Bridge no.66

Rising Bridge no.66

The following are our Grand Union Canal Main Line topics -

Aston Junction to Kingswood - this page
Kingswood Junction via Hatton Locks to Royal Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa to Braunston
Braunston-Gayton Junction-Blisworth Tunnel-Stoke Bruerne-Wolverton
Grand Union Canal Wolverton to Horton
Ivinghoe Locks to Kings Langley
Kings Langley to the end of the Grand Union at The Thames

We have picked out a few Books about England - concerning the waterways of England. The Nicholsons Waterways Guides are a "must take" for anyone going on a Canal Barge or Narrowboat holiday (as well as anyone visiting the canals) as they are packed with really useful information. (The relevant Nicholoson Guide covering The Grand Union Canal is BOOK 1.)
If the development and history of our English and British Canals is of particular interest consider looking at the Anatomy of Canals series which are really good reading!.