View source for Digbeth Branch Canal

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Digbeth Branch Canal map}}
[[File:Aston Junction, Birmingham.jpg|right|thumb|Aston Junction. The Digbeth Branch Canal begins, top right.]]
[[File:Locks on the Digbeth Branch Canal.jpg|right|thumb|Locks on the Digbeth Branch]]
[[File:Proof House Junction near the Warwick Bar.jpg|right|thumb|Proof House Junction]]
[[File:Warwick Bar stop lock and Banana Warehouse.jpg|right|thumb|The Warwick Bar stop lock and Banana Warehouse]]
[[File:Bordesley Junction, Birmingham.jpg|right|thumb|Bordesley Junction]]
The '''Digbeth Branch Canal''' in [[Birmingham]], [[England]] is a short canal which links the mainline of the [[Birmingham and Fazeley Canal]] at [[Aston Junction]] and the Grand Union Canal at Digbeth Junction (or historically, at the adjacent [[Warwick Bar]]) in Digbeth, a district in Birmingham, England.

Completed in 1799 the Digbeth Branch of the [[Birmingham Canal Navigations]] provided a route for traffic between the mainline of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, and thus the Birmingham Canal mainline, to and from the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (now part of the [[Grand Union Canal]]), initially via transshipment over a short physical gap between the canals called the [[Warwick Bar]], with a stop lock later allowing through passage of boats.

The 1¼ mile long canal has six locks descending 40 feet from Aston Junction; the final lock will be located under the final approach to [[High Speed 2]]'s [[Birmingham Curzon Street railway station]]. After that final lock, the canal passes through a [[grade II listed]] tunnel carrying the lines eastwards from [[Birmingham New Street railway station]], and originally the lines to the original [[Birmingham Curzon Street railway station (1838–1966)|Curzon Street station]]. Beyond the tunnel is Digbeth Junction. From the junction there is a short branch to the [[Typhoo]] Basin.

In modern times, Digbeth Junction is sometimes regarded as the junction with the Grand Union Canal, but historically the through route goes a little further, under a former railway bridge, and meets the Grand Union Canal (originally the Warwick and Birmingham Canal) at the [[Warwick Bar]] stop lock just to the rear of [[Birmingham Proof House]].

From here, the Grand Union Canal continues the route onwards to Bordesley Junction.

All of the canal between Ashted Lock at Jennens Road (formerly the [[A47 road|A47]]) and Great Barr Street (Bordesley) is within the Warwick Bar Conservation Area.

==Features==
{| class="wikitable"
!Point
!Coordinates
|-
|[[Aston Junction]]
|{{coord|52.49020|-1.88850|name=Aston Junction}}
|-
|Ashted Lock
|{{coord|52.48625|-1.88401|name=Ashted Lock}}
|-
|Ashted tunnel North portal
|{{coord|52.48187|-1.88191|name=Ashted tunnel North portal}}
|-
|Ashted tunnel South portal
|{{coord|52.48080|-1.88295|name=Ashted tunnel South portal}}
|-
|Railway viaduct
|{{coord|52.48082|-1.88451|name=Railway viaduct}}
|-
|Proof House Junction
|{{coord|52.48028|-1.88411|name=Proof House Junction}}
|-
|[[Warwick Bar]]
|{{coord|52.47985|-1.88338|name=Warwick Bar}}
|-
|[[River Rea]]
|{{coord|52.47897|-1.88192|name=River Rea}}
|-
|Great Barr Street
|{{coord|52.47783|-1.87996|name=Great Barr Street}}
|-
|[[Bordesley Junction]]
|{{coord|52.47565|-1.87719|name=Bordesley Junction}}
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Transport}}
*[[Canals of Great Britain]]
*[[History of the British canal system]]

==References==
*{{cite book|author=Perrott, David|author2=Mosse, Jonathan|title=Nicholson Waterways Guide 3 - Birmingham & the Heart of England|publisher=Collins|year=2006|isbn=978-0-00-721111-1}}
*{{cite book|last=Priestley |first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Priestley |title=Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, Throughout Great Britain|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalaccou01priegoog |publisher=Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green|year=1831}}

==External links==
{{GeoGroup}}
{{Attached KML|display=title,inline}}
*[http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/ELibrary?E_LIBRARY_ID=413&a=1120040757835 Birmingham City Council - Map of Warwick Bar Conservation Area (PDF)]
*[http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/ELibrary?E_LIBRARY_ID=508 Birmingham City Council - Planning Committee designation of Warwick Bar Conservation Area 1987 (PDF)]
*{{NHLE |num=1075609 |desc=Curzon tunnel - grade II}}

{{Birmingham Canal Navigations}}

[[Category:Lists of coordinates]]
[[Category:Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:Birmingham Canal Navigations]]
[[Category:Canals in the West Midlands (county)]]
[[Category:Canals opened in 1799]]