Wednesbury Oak Loop

The Wednesbury Oak Loop, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN), is a canal in the West Midlands (county), England.

The Wednesbury Oak Loop was one of the loops in the original, meandering Birmingham Canal, later called the BCN Main Line, built by James Brindley in 1770. cite book |last= Pearson|first= Michael|authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title=Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations|origdate= 1989|publisher= J. M. Pearson & Associates|isbn= 0-907864-49-X] The Birmingham Canal followed an indirect route between Birmingham and Aldersley Junction, near Wolverhampton, in order to access various coal mines.

Thomas Telford started upgrades to the BCN Main Line in the 1820s, cutting a straighter, wider canal for much of the way. Following his changes a convert|360|yd|sing=on tunnel at Coseley opened in 1837 and bypassed the entire loop around Wednesbury Oak. The loop met the new cut at Deepfields Junction to the north of the tunnel, which marks the northern limit of Telford's route change, and Bloomfield Junction to the south, which had railway wharves for the Great Western Railway (GWR) and London and North Western Railway (LNWR).

The Ocker Hill Branch, authorised in the same 1768 Act of Parliament which authorised the Birmingham Canal and Wednesbury Canal, was a branch from the Wednesbury Oak Loop. At a later date a steam engine at Ocker Hill pumped water from the Ocker Hill Tunnel Branch (at the convert|408|ft|m|sing=on Walsall Level) into it, feeding the convert|473|ft|m|sing=on Wolverhampton Level of the BCN. This branch became 'abandoned' in 1954 and has been filled in.

In 1849 the Bradley Locks Branch opened, connecting the loop with the Walsall Canal.

In 1954, along with many other branches and canals in the BCN, much of the Wednesbury Oak Loop was given 'abandoned' status and was subsequently filled in and partly built over. The northern stretch remains navigable to the British Waterways workshops built at Bradley in 1960. Next to the British Waterways workshops is the modern Bradley pumping station which draws water from flooded coal mines into the Wolverhampton Level.

Route

References