View source for BCN Main Line

{{short description|Birmingham Canal UK}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox Canal
  | name                 = BCN Main Line
  | image                = 
  | image_caption        = 
  | mapframe             = yes
  | mapframe-zoom        = 10
  | mapframe-frame-height = 225
  | length               = 
  | original_owner       = 
  | date_act             = 
  | connects_to          = [[Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal]]<br>[[Worcester and Birmingham Canal]]
  | locks                = 
  | original_num_locks   = 
  | status               = Navigable
  | navigation_authority = 
  | module               = 
}}
{{BCN Main Line map}}

The '''BCN Main Line''', or '''Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line''' is the evolving route of the '''Birmingham Canal''' between [[Birmingham]] and [[Wolverhampton]] in [[England]].

The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton route from the many other canals and branches built or acquired by the [[Birmingham Canal Navigations]] company.

==BCN Old Main Line==
[[File:Birmingham Canal Office print.jpg|left|thumb|Birmingham Canal Company offices fronting Paradise Street. They backed onto the Old Wharf terminus.]]
On 24 January 1767, a number of prominent Birmingham businessmen, including [[Matthew Boulton]] and others from the [[Lunar Society]],<ref name=p>{{cite book |last= Paget-Tomlinson|first= Edward W.|title=The Illustrated History of Canal & River Navigations|orig-year=1978|year=2006|publisher= Landmark Publishing Ltd|isbn= 1-84306-207-0}}</ref>
held a public meeting in the White Swan, High Street, Birmingham<ref name=sbcn>''Smethwick and the BCN'', Malcolm D. Freeman, 2003, Sandwell MBC and Smethwick Heritage Centre Trust</ref>
to consider the possibility of building a canal from Birmingham to the [[Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal]] near [[Wolverhampton]], taking in the coalfields of the [[Black Country]]. They commissioned the [[canal engineer]] [[James Brindley]] to propose a route. Brindley came back with a largely level but meandering route via [[Smethwick]], [[Oldbury, West Midlands|Oldbury]], [[Tipton]], [[Bilston]] and Wolverhampton to Aldersley.<ref name=p/><ref name=hadfield>{{cite book|author=Hadfield, Charles|title=Canals of the West Midlands|publisher=[[David & Charles]]|location=Newton Abbott}}</ref>

On 24 February 1768, an [[Act of Parliament]] was passed to allow the building of the canal, with branches at [[Ocker Hill]] and [[Wednesbury]]<ref name=p/> where there were coal mines. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire company was given the right to make the connection to their canal if the Birmingham company failed to do so within six months of opening.<ref name=hadfield/> On 2 March<ref name=hadfield/> Brindley was appointed [[Canal engineer|engineer]].<ref name=p/> The first phase of building was to Wednesbury whereupon the price of coal sold to domestic households in Birmingham halved overnight.<ref name=sbcn/> Vested interests of the sponsors caused the creation of two terminal wharves in Birmingham. The 1772 Newhall Branch and wharf (now built upon) originally extended north of, and parallel to Great Charles Street. The 1773 Paradise Street Branch split off at [[Old Turn Junction]] and headed through [[Broad Street, Birmingham|Broad Street Tunnel]], turned left at what is now [[Gas Street Basin]] and under Bridge Street to wharves on a tuning fork-shaped pair of long basins: Paradise Wharf, also called Old Wharf. The Birmingham Canal Company head office was finally built there, opposite the western end of [[Paradise Street]].<ref name=shillbc>{{Cite book|last=Shill|first=Ray|title=Birmingham's Canals|publisher=Sutton Publishing Ltd|year=1999|isbn= 0-7509-2077-7}}<!--|access-date=4 May 2012--></ref>

By 6 November 1769, {{convert|10|mi|km}}<ref name=p/><ref name=hadfield/> had been completed to Hill Top collieries in [[West Bromwich]], with a one-mile summit pound at Smethwick. Brindley had tried to dig a tunnel through the hill at Smethwick but had encountered ground too soft to cope with.<ref name=hadfield/><ref name="culture24">{{cite web |title=Birmingham's Canal Network - In Brindley's Footsteps |url=https://www.culture24.org.uk/places-to-go/west-midlands/birmingham/tra23386 |website=Culture 24 |access-date=3 August 2019}}</ref> The canal rose from what is now the [[Birmingham Level]] through six narrow ({{cvt|7|ft|disp=comma}}) [[canal lock|locks]] to the [[summit level canal|summit level]] and descended through another six at Spon Lane. Water was brought from purpose-built reservoirs: Smethwick Great Reservoir (now built upon, holding 1514 locks of water), another smaller pool at Smethwick (holding 500 locks),<ref name=sbcn/> and then from Titford Pool<ref name=hadfield/> to supply the summit level.<ref name=p/>

In 1770 work started towards Wolverhampton, from above the third Spon Lane lock at what is now the [[Wolverhampton Level]].<ref name=p/> On 21 September 1772<ref name=hadfield/> the canal was joined with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at [[Aldersley Junction]] via another 20 locks<ref name=p/> (increased to 21 in 1784 to save water).<ref name=hadfield/><ref>{{cite book|last= Pearson|first= Michael|title=Canal Companion - Midland Rings |year= 1990|publisher= J. M. Pearson & Associates|isbn= 0-907864-53-8}}</ref>
Brindley died a few days later. The canal measured {{convert|22+5/8|mi}},<ref name=p/> mostly following the contour of the land but with deviations to factories and mines in the [[Black Country]] and Birmingham. A branch led to Matthew Boulton's [[Soho Manufactory]].

===Water shortage===
The original Birmingham Canal was extremely successful but there was a problem with supplying sufficient water to the Smethwick Summit. Matthew Boulton's partner, [[James Watt (inventor)|James Watt]], had just patented an improvement to the [[steam engine]] involving an external condenser which improved the efficiency (and therefore reduced the amount of coal needed to run it). Steam engines were constructed at either end of the Smethwick Summit to pump water used in the operation of the locks back to the summit.<ref name=p/> The [[Smethwick Engine]] (5 June 1779) pumped water from the Birmingham side of the summit, and another, the Spon Lane Engine (April 1778)<ref name=sbcn/> operated from the Wolverhampton side.

In 1784, after two years of counter-productive attempts at legislation, the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company (created to propose a competitive canal from the coal fields to Birmingham and also a link to the [[Coventry Canal]] at [[Fazeley Junction|Fazeley]]) merged with the Birmingham Canal Company<ref name=hadfield/> (ten years later the name of the merged company was changed to the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company) and the [[Birmingham and Fazeley Canal]] was started. This created an even greater need for water to supply the thirteen locks at Farmer's Bridge and eleven at Aston, all running downhill and taking water out of the Birmingham system.

===Smeaton's improvements===
There were problems of congestion at Smethwick caused by the time taken to traverse the locks and with supplying sufficient water to the summit level. [[John Smeaton]] was engaged to advise on a solution. He specified a 1000-yard cutting through the top eighteen feet of the summit, eliminating three locks from each end, and doubling the capacity of the descent at Smethwick locks by building a parallel flight of three locks,<ref name=p/> in use until the 1960s. The changes were made in two phases with a new cut to the side to remove two locks from each end and lower the summit by twelve feet, and then another parallel cut another six feet lower, removing another lock at each end and the provision of a parallel set of three locks at the Smethwick end.<ref name=hadfield/> In 1790, after {{frac|2|1|2}} years the cutting was completed. The canal was closed for only 14 days. The lowered summit was at the [[Wolverhampton Level]] and simplified water supply. Water was also pumped from several local coal mines. The Spon Lane engine was removed and sold but the Smethwick Engine continued to be used to pump used water from the [[Birmingham Level]].

===Other changes===
The Act allowed for branches to extend from the main line, and for private wharves and basins. In May 1821 the loop of the main line around [[Oldbury, West Midlands|Oldbury]] was bypassed by a straight cut, shortening the route between Birmingham and Wolverhampton.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Collins|first=Paul|title=Black Country Canals|publisher=Sutton Publishing|year=2001|isbn=0-7509-2031-9}}<!--|access-date=14 May 2012--></ref>

==BCN New Main Line==
Over the next thirty years, as more canals and branches were built or connected it became necessary to review the long, winding, narrow Old Main Line. With a single towpath boats passing in opposite directions had to negotiate their horses and ropes. As traffic grew the locks at Smethwick Summit were still a constriction.

In 1824 [[Thomas Telford]] was commissioned to examine alternatives.<ref name=p/> He famously travelled the route of the Old Line and reported the existing canal as:<ref name=sbcn/>
<blockquote>
"... little more than a crooked ditch, with scarcely the appearance of a towing path, the horses frequently sliding and staggering in the water, the hauling lines sweeping the gravel into the canal, and the entanglement at the meeting of boats being incessant; whilst at the locks at each end of the short summit at Smethwick, crowds of boatmen were always quarrelling, or offering premiums for the preference of passage; the mine owners injured by the delay, were loud in their just complaints."
</blockquote>
Telford proposed major changes to the section between Birmingham and Smethwick, widening and straightening the canal, providing towpaths on each side, and cutting through Smethwick Summit to bypass the locks, allowing lock-free passage from Birmingham to Tipton. Telford's proposals were swayed by the threat of a new Birmingham to [[Liverpool]] railway.<ref name=p/>
His suggestions were accepted and he was appointed chief engineer on 28 June 1824.

By 1827 the '''New Main Line''' passed straight through, and linked to, the loops of the Old Main Line, creating Oozells Loop, Icknield Port Loop, Soho Loop, Cape Loop and Soho Foundry Loop, allowing continued access to the existing factories and wharves.

A year earlier he had built an improved Rotton Park Reservoir ([[Edgbaston Reservoir]]) on the site of an existing fish pool, bringing its capacity to {{convert|300|e6impgal|m3}}. A canal feeder took water to, and along, a raised embankment on the south side of the New Main Line to his new [[Engine Arm]] branch canal and across an elegant cast iron aqueduct to top up the higher Wolverhampton Level at Smethwick Summit. The reservoir also fed water to the Birmingham Level at the adjacent Icknield Port Loop.

The Smethwick Summit was bypassed by {{cvt|71|ft}} cutting<ref name=p/> through Lunar Society member, [[Samuel Galton, Jr.|Samuel Galton's]] land, creating the Galton Valley, 70 feet deep and 150 feet wide, running parallel to the Old Main Line. Telford's changes here were completed in 1829.<ref name=p/>

Telford designed a cast iron bridge, the [[Galton Bridge]], to span his cutting. It was cast in the [[Horseley Iron Works]], as was the [[Engine Arm Aqueduct]] and many of the wide [[roving bridge]]s.

In 1837, after Telford's death, a new section of his planned canal was opened together with the 360 yard Coseley Tunnel, complete with double towpath,<ref name=p/> cutting out the long detour around [[Coseley]] and Wednesbury Oak, and therefore relegating it as the [[Wednesbury Oak Loop]]. As with many of the branch canals on the BCN, most of the Wednesbury Oak Loop became officially abandoned from 1954, but the northern stretch remains navigable to the [[British Waterways]] workshops at [[Bradley, West Midlands|Bradley]].<ref name=pearson>{{cite book |last= Pearson|first= Michael|title=Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations|year= 1989|publisher= J. M. Pearson & Associates|isbn= 0-907864-49-X}}</ref>

By 1838 the New Main Line was complete: {{convert|22+5/8|mi}} of slow canal reduced to {{convert|15+5/8|mi}};<ref name=p/> between Birmingham and Tipton, it was a lock-free dual carriageway. It was also called the '''Island Line''' as it was cut straight through the hill at Smethwick known as the Island.<ref name=p/>

==Later==
In 1892 the Smethwick Engine was replaced by a new pumping house between the old and new canals, just north of Brasshouse Lane Bridge in Smethwick.

Late in the 20th century, a pair of concrete tunnels near Galton Bridge were built to carry the Telford Way road.

Ryland Aqueduct, built in 1836 carrying the canal over the main [[A461 road]] at Dudley Port, [[Tipton]], was rebuilt in the late 1960s at a cost of £170,000<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=£700,000 aqueduct scheme |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002135/19661011/123/0007 |newspaper=Birmingham Daily Post |location=England |date=11 October 1966 |access-date=30 August 2022 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> ({{Inflation|UK|170000|1967|r=-2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} Demolition of the old aqueduct took place in September 1967.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=In memory of a monument |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002135/19670901/111/0006 |newspaper=Birmingham Daily Post |location=England |date=1 September 1967 |access-date=30 August 2022 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> In 1991 at a cost of £22,000 its bare concrete structure was painted blue and white and included a frieze of a narrowboat crossing an old-fashioned brick aqueduct.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Frieze Launch |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002135/19670901/111/0006 |newspaper=Sandwell Evening Mail |location=England |date=31 August 1991 |access-date=30 August 2022 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>

The Smethwick Summit - Galton Valley Conservation Area<ref>[http://www.laws.sandwell.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/planning/historic-buildings-and-conservation/conservation/ Sandwell MBC conservation areas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612152045/http://www.laws.sandwell.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/planning/historic-buildings-and-conservation/conservation/ |date=12 June 2008 }}</ref> protects the Old and New lines between the Birmingham city boundary and Spon Lane locks.<ref>[http://cmis.sandwell.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=5960 Galton Valley Conservation Area - Review of boundaries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725174603/http://cmis.sandwell.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=5960 |date=25 July 2011 }}</ref>

==Features==

===Junctions===
{{PoIgb start|type=collapsed}}
{{PoIgb|[[Gas Street Basin]]|52.4773|-1.9100|SP061866|[[Worcester and Birmingham Canal]]|name=Gas Street Basin}}
{{PoIgb|[[Old Turn Junction]]|52.4792|-1.9139|SP058868|Original junction to two terminal branches in Birmingham|name=Old Turn Junction}}
{{PoIgb|Sandy Turn Junction|52.4827|-1.9259|SP050872|(BCN Old and New Lines meet)}}
{{PoIgb|Rotton Park Junction|52.4843|-1.9291|SP048874|(BCN Old and New Lines cross)}}
{{PoIgb|Winson Green Junction|52.4912|-1.9424|SP039881|(BCN Old and New Lines cross)}}
{{PoIgb|Soho Foundry Junction (West)|52.4972|-1.9520|SP032888|(dry)}}
{{PoIgb|Cape Junction|52.4937|-1.9474|SP035884|(short branch, originally Cape Loop) and Soho Foundry East (dry)}}
{{PoIgb|[[Smethwick Junction (canal)|Smethwick Junction]]|52.4988|-1.9587|SP028890|(BCN Old and New Lines meet)|name=Smethwick Junction}}
{{PoIgb|[[Spon Lane Junction]]|52.5066|-1.9951|SP003898|Spon Lane Locks Branch (originally part of the [[Wednesbury Canal]])
splits from BCN Old Line under M5 motorway|name=Spon Lane Junction)}}
{{PoIgb|[[Bromford Junction]]|52.5070|-2.0051|SO996899|BCN New Line meets Spon Lane Locks Branch (originally part of the [[Wednesbury Canal]])|name=Bromford Junction}}
{{PoIgb|Pudding Green Junction|52.5139|-2.0168|SO988907|[[Wednesbury Old Canal]] (last remaining part of original Wednesbury Canal)}}
{{PoIgb|Albion Junction|52.5177|-2.0292|SO980911|[[Gower Branch Canal]]}}
{{PoIgb|Dudley Port Junction|52.5223|-2.0432|SO970916|[[Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal]]}}
{{PoIgb|Dixon's Branch Canal |52.5258|-2.0525|SO964920|(dry)}}
{{PoIgb|Watery Lane Junction|52.5289|-2.0638|SO956923|Tipton Green Branch (dry), for [[Toll End Communication Canal]] (dry)}}
{{PoIgb|Tipton Factory Junction|52.5320|-2.0745|SO949927|(BCN Old and New Lines meet)}}
{{PoIgb|Bloomfield Junction|52.5351|-2.0795|SO946930|(dry) - Wednesbury Oak Loop originally rejoined}}
{{PoIgb|Deepfields Junction|52.5528|-2.0904|SO938950|[[Wednesbury Oak Loop]] (truncated Old Main Line)}}
{{PoIgb|Horseley Fields Junction|52.5852|-2.1132|SO923986|[[Wyrley and Essington Canal]]}}
{{PoIgb|[[Aldersley Junction]]|52.6079|-2.1449|SJ901011|End of Main Line, [[Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal]]|name=Aldersley Junction}}
{{PoIgb|Tipton Green Junction|52.5275|-2.0701|SO952922|Tipton Green Branch (dry)}}
{{PoIgb|Tipton Junction|52.5252|-2.0728|SO950919|(for [[Dudley Tunnel]])}}
{{PoIgb|Brades Hall Junction|52.5106|-2.0334|SO977903|[[Gower Branch Canal]]}}
{{PoIgb|Oldbury Junction|52.5010|-2.0098|SO993892|[[Titford Canal]]}}
{{PoIgb end}}

===Other features===
{{PoIgb start|type=collapsed}}
{{PoIgb|Winson Green Toll Island|52.4917|-1.9434|SP038882|}}
{{PoIgb|Smethwick Gauging Station island|52.4982|-1.9654|SP023889}}
{{PoIgb|Tipton Indexing Station|52.5317|-2.0732|SO950926|}}
{{PoIgb|Smethwick top lock|52.4985|-1.9660|SP023889|}}
{{PoIgb|[[Galton Bridge]]|52.5020|-1.9793|SP014893|carrying Roebuck Lane, Smethwick|name=Galton Bridge}}
{{PoIgb|Spon Lane top lock|52.5067|-1.9957|SP002899|under [[M5 motorway]]}}
{{PoIgb|Albion Junction Toll Island|52.5182|-2.0305|SO979911|}}
{{PoIgb|[[Stewart Aqueduct]]|52.5059|-1.9973|SP001898|(Old Main Line over New Main Line)|name=Stewart Aqueduct}}
{{PoIgb|Rydale Aqueduct|52.5240|-2.0486|SO967918|(over [[A461 road]] (Dudley Port))}}
{{PoIgb|Coseley Tunnel South Portal|52.5408|-2.0861|SO941937|}}
{{PoIgb|Coseley Tunnel North Portal|52.5438|-2.0881|SO940940|}}
{{PoIgb|[[South Staffordshire Railway]] Aqueduct|52.5246|-2.0505|SO965918|(disused railway)|name=South Staffordshire Railway}}
{{PoIgb|Wolverhampton top lock|52.5895|-2.1225|SO917991|}}
{{PoIgb|Tividale Aqueduct|52.5164|-2.0484|SO967909|(over [[Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal]])}}
{{PoIgb|[[Engine Arm Aqueduct]]|52.4979|-1.9665|SP022889|over [[BCN New Main Line]], feeding water from [[Edgbaston Reservoir|Rotton Park Reservoir (now Edgbaston Reservoir)]] to the BCN Old line|name=Engine Arm Aqueduct}}
{{PoIgb|New Smethwick Pumping Station|52.4981|-1.9731|SP018889|Grade II listed building,<ref>{{NHLE |num=1077154 |desc=Smethwick New Pumping House |access-date=23 April 2015}}</ref> pumping water from the lower Telford New Line to the Brindley Old Line|name=New Smethwick Pumping Station}}
{{PoIgb|Old [[Smethwick Engine]]|52.4977|-1.9622|SP025889|Old Watt engine on corner of Rolfe Street and Bridge Street|name=Old Smethwick Engine}}
{{PoIgb end}}
{{kml}}
{{Attached KML|header='''Map''' of ''Stour Valley'' alongside ''BCN canal''<br /><nowiki />|wikidata=Q26331753}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:01 Birmingham city night, UK - バーミンガム.jpg|Bridge over Old Main Line in downtown Birmingham
Image:Winson Green Junction toll island.jpg|Two [[Horsley Ironworks]] bridges and derelict [[toll island]] at Winson Green Junction.
Image:Roving bridges at Smethwick Junction.jpg|[[Roving bridge]]s at [[Smethwick Junction (canal)|Smethwick Junction]].
Image:Octagonal BCN canal Toll house at Smethwick top lock.jpg|Recently constructed octagonal BCN Toll house at Smethwick top lock.
Image:Engine Arm Aqueduct west.jpg|The [[Engine Arm Aqueduct]].
Image:New Smethwick Pumping Station.jpg|The New Smethwick Pumping Station (restored).
Image:Galton Bridge and tunnel.jpg|[[Galton Bridge]] and tunnel.
File:Stewart Aqueduct BCN with train.jpg|[[Stewart Aqueduct]] — Motorway (M5) over rail over canal over canal.
Image:Bromford Junction.jpg|[[Bromford Junction]] - Spon Lane bottom lock visible through one of the [[Horseley Ironworks]] bridges.
Image:Watery Lane Junction.jpg|Watery Lane Junction and Caggy's Boatyard, near [[Toll End]], [[Tipton]].
File:Tividale Quays Basin, Dudley Port.jpg|[[Tividale Quays]] Basin, [[Dudley Port]], [[Tipton]], on the Old Main Line
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Transport}}
*[[Canals of the United Kingdom]]
*[[History of the British canal system]]
*[[Water levels of the Birmingham Canal Navigations]]
*[[British Waterways#Waterscape|Waterscape]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061230143259/http://www.tamevalley.freeserve.co.uk/sandwell/ Coal chutes at Sandwell, before demolition] <!-- some mention of these needs to be made in the article; I may do so later, if I'm not beaten to it -->

{{Birmingham Canal Navigations}}
{{coord|52.5351|-2.0795|display=title|region:GB_dim:10000}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bcn Main Line}}
[[Category:Birmingham Canal Navigations]]
[[Category:Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:Transport in Wolverhampton]]
[[Category:Canals in the West Midlands (county)]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in the West Midlands (county)]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:Works of Thomas Telford]]
[[Category:Canals opened in 1838]]
[[Category:1838 establishments in England]]