Boats approaching the BCN from the Grand Union Canal long before they reach the BCN will get a flavour of city canals as they travel from Knowle locks into the suburbs of Birmingham. These canals to the casual observer seem no different to any canal found on the BCN. However the BCN starts in spirit at the top of the Camp Hill locks although strictly we are still on the Grand Union, so thats where we will start. Camp Hill locks drop down under a railway bridge into a new lock just before a sharp bend, the course of the canal being changed to accomodate a new road.

The locks drop down between factories and go under bridges closed off from the outside world. Bordesley Junction is reached, its straight ahead for the Digbeth Branch that will take us to Aston Junction via Ashted. Whilst to the right the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal will take us down more locks through an industail landscape to Salford Junction .

After Bordesley Junction straight ahead takes us past factories and houses before we enter a very interesting area. All along the canal on our left are buildings that where once served by the canal. A wharf and basin still exist, boats are moored in the basin that was a bonded warehouse, with modern offices completing the complex. A covered wharf is next with the large building being the old offices of Thomas Morton & Claytons. A stop lock then a bridge takes us to a junction. Digbeth Junction is the modern name, it displays a society sign post erected when the area was re generated in 2000. The sign post was erected at the back of a fine building the Gun Proofing Works. This building is where all the gun barrels made in Birmingham were and are tested, it set a world standard in gun barrel safely and still operates to this day. In the complex of buildings is one building with a roof that is made up of moveable slates like a ventian blind. This is the building where the barrels are tested, by exploding gun powder in them, the roof being opened to let the smoke out. The building is not regularly open to the public but does have a musuem and occasional open days.
For more information see website:www.gunproof.com

The canal to the left takes us to a basin, Digbeth Basin or as the sign post states Typhoo Basin as the large building it served belonged to Typhoo Tea at one time.(The sponsers who paid for the sign wished it to be Typhoo as opposed to Digbeth Basin) In the basin we are completely surrounded by buildings. Back at the junction and a right turn, and we enter a dark tunnel created by the railway lines above, with a busy railway junction above called "Proof house Junction".

Emerging out of the railway tunnel we approach the bottom lock of the six Ashted locks that will take us up to Aston Junction. The locks are a delight to operate and just before we get to the top lock we enter Ashted Tunnel with its single towpath.

Out of the top lock and we are travelling thro the science park of Aston University, moorings are available. All of the old industry that once flanked the canal has gone, and been replaced by new offices and units linked to the University.

Aston junction is next, left for Birmingham City Centre, right for Salford Junction. This route is little used but should aways be considered as the locks are easy to use, the water deep and the whole section remarkably pleasant considering the industry you are travelling through.

Turn right at Bordesley Junction and the canal travels past factories of old Brum, under roads with new housing developments that have terraces overlooking the canal.

For all of this the canal seems detached from the area, passing Birmingham City Football ground, the lights of which are only just visable from the canal. Industry takes over and we start to drop down the five Garrison Locks passing close to railway lines.

After the bottom lock we run close to a new road with the river Rea in a deep cutting alongside as we approach "Star City" that heralds Salford Junction with the busy Motorway above.

Star City is a large entertainment complex with cinemas, restaurants and other attractions, with on occasions a Fair camped on its car park. Moorings are to be found at Star City but access is thro a locked gate to use its many attractions.(These moorings are fairly new and have not been tested by the BCNS. Day time use will be OK but night time may be noisy from both the motorway and the complex) The canal narrows and we pass thro a stop lock with a cottage alongside before reaching the junction.

After the top lock of the Farmers Bridge flight a short run takes us past the NIA and up to an island with a BCNS sign post in the middle of the track.

To our right the start of the Main Line: Birmingham Level. Apartments and new buildings are everywhere, the junction is a crossroads, straight ahead is the Oozells Street loop with Sherbourne Wharf at its heart. Take this route and you will rejoin the main line having travelled through a canyon of new apartments. Turn left and you pass the Sea life center and the many bars and restaurants before turning sharply to the right and onto the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

From Old Turn junction(Farmers Bridge is the modern name but some purest would even throw in Deep Cutting Junction as the correct name). We pass the rest of the NIA with apartments on the other side, until we reach a junction (Ladywood Junction) where the Oozells Street loop rejoins the line.

From here the canal becomes wider and deeper passing old factories and modern council housing. Passes under a large road bridge and the railway line joins us destined to be not far away, all the way to Wolverhampton. On the left appears the entrance to the Icknield Port Loop (Sandy Turn), travel along this loop and you will rejoin the canal further on, at Rotton Park Junction. This loop gives one a flavour of the old BCN with old factories many with know bricked up access points to the canal. A BWB yard is passed at the foot of a canal reservoir dam (Rotton Park or Edgbaston reservoir), we travel on finally re joining the Main Line at Rotten Park Junction. This area especailly in the BWB yard area is destine to be developed, with already a number of plans that have come to nothing having been considered.

On rejoining the Main line at Rotten Park Junction if you cross the Main line you enter the Soho Loop. This will taken you thro council estates and more factories, skirt around a hospital, a HMP prison, pass Hockley Port an old interchange basin( know full of boats) before rejoining the main line at Winson Green Junction. Well worth the effort if only to say you have done them.

The Main Line without the loops is as straight as a canal can be and after Rotten Park Junction enters a deep cutting with the railway alongside and any roads way up high. The cutting finishes and we arrive at Winson Green Junction, are joined by the Soho Loop just before the canal spilt's at a toll island sadly minus its toll office. On our left is a bank the top if which carries a feeder channel, that once channelled water from Rotten Park reservoir behind us to the various levels ahead of us. The railway and industry know dominate the canal all the way to Smethwick Junction where the Old Main Line goes of to our right.

After Smethwick junction the Main Line turns to the left and ahead of us is the Smethwick gauging islands with the Engine Arm Aqueduct behind. At the junction the canal is spanned by bridges that carry the towpath over the entrance to the Old Main Line that goes off to the right.

Today this is an industrail scene but plans are in the pipe line that will change this scene for good. It is proposed that from Bridge Street all along the left hand side of the canal including the Engine Arm?, for the factories to be replaced with yet more houses plus on an artist's drawing a marina?. It is difficult to argue against these plans as it will re generate a run down area, but it will change for ever its industrail orgins. Yet one more piece of BCN history gone. The Galton Valley however thankfully will remain a corrider of green with its canal structures at its heart.

At the Gauging Islands the building that used to span the two islands has know gone, the rubble from the demolition being in filled into the central channel, making it look like just one island. The building had doors at each end, lock type gates to allow boats to enter and seal the chamber from the main channel. Cranes in the building used to lower known wieghts into a boat, the boat then being marked when loaded. This mark then allowed accurate tolls to be levied when passing thro a toll island. See later in this section under Tipton, an example of a building similar to the one that was once here. Also see section in photo gallery about the work parties the society has held at this structure. The Aqueduct just past the islands, is as fine an example of a canal structure anywhere, spanning the deep cutting, it carries the Engine Arm Branch off the Old Main line, over the Main line.

The cutting know turns a corner and we are immediately treated to the view of a restored pump house standing between the two canal levels. Ahead can be seen Galton tunnel a modern feature, being a concrete tube that carries on its top a modern road. This whole area is known as the Galton Valley, it was once full of industry but is know a Urban Park and in just a small area there is every feature found on a canal except a lift. Two canals one modern in a cutting, the other above a contour canal, locks, junctions, bridges, aqueduct, tunnels, tollhouse, guaging station, twin tow paths are all features to be found in this small area. A Canal Heritage Centre explains all about the area, it is housed in a house just at the top of a flight of steps above the Pump house in Brass House Lane, the bridge next to the tall telegraph pole.(0121-558-8195 for opening times and more info) Observe the size of the telegraph poles that line the bank of the cutting near to the railway station. Try to imagine the tree from which the pole was fashioned to carry the line over the road bridge.

Immediatley on leaving the tube of Galton Tunnel look up and you will see Telfords Galton Bridge, a cast iron bridge that spans the 150 ft wide cutting. This is know only a foot bridge, traffic is banned from crossing, it has been classified as an ancient monument. The view of the bridge is somewhat spoilt by the new road next to it and the proxity of the new railway station and access bridge. It must have been an impressive site when it stood alone in the cutting, but today its still a marvel of our industrail heritage. We continue in a straight and deep cutting with the railway line alongside and above us.

In front and to the right loom fascinating structures. On our right is a large disused factory with bricked up arches that once gave access to the canal. This is Chances Glass works where many a light house lense was made, it was once served by the canal and later the railway. Note the ornate bridge that spans the canal connecting the factory to the nearby line. In front is Stewart Aqueduct that carries the Old Main line over us, as it twists its way to Oldbury.

Behind and above the aqueduct is the modern elevated motorway its huge supports sunk into the bed of the canal. Steer round the supports with the colours of many and boat stike on them and we have a short straight before we arrive at Bromford Junction. Here the Spon lane locks join us from the right, just one of the four routes off the Old Main line level.

Immedaitely after Bromford junction is yet another toll island minus its office, as the canal passes through industry with the railway line nearby. The canal know straightens out and will remain so all the way to the Factory Locks at Tipton.

We arrive at Pudding Green Junction where the Wednesbury Old Canal joins us coming in from Walsall. Straight ahead and the railway line that had deserted us for a while crosses over the track and will remain close by all the way to Tipton and beyond. Immedaitely after the rail bridge is another bridge with written on it a piece of graffitti that has become an almost welcome part of the scene, no one seems to know who "Tojo the Dwarf" is. (See Boundary Post Magazine section for more articles on the origins and age of this graffitti)

Very shortly after we arrive at Albion Junction, and on our left is the Gower Branch, with yet another toll island (Dunkirk Stop) after the junction. The canal continues its dead straight course with trains thundering by on one side with old indusrail workings, being filled in on the other. We pass yet another junction Dudley Port Junction on our left, where the Dudley No 1 Canal joins us via the Netherton Tunnel Branch.

The canal then enters an aqueduct that carries us over a main road with a railway bridge yards away. Both bridges are adorned with steel murals facing the traffic below, depicting either canal boats or steam trains. Nearby a railway station where the public stand on the platform looking down on the canal is reached. We are now entering Tipton past new buildings that have replaced old industrail units.

A boat yard is on our right still with the name of its most famous occupate "The late:Caggy Stevens" still displayed. Caggy was a real charactor and probably operated the last working boats on the BCN. Usually his BCN Tug named after him can be seen moored in the basin, recently fully restored by its present owner. In this area there was once a junction that brought a canal in from our left from the Old Main line and to our right an another canal that went to the Walsall canal. This canal the Tipton Green & Toll End Communication canal, was lost in the 1960/70's and along with other canals lost in the area led to the 'more canals in Tipton than Venice' saying. The centre of Tipton could only be reached by crossing water, the town being surrounded by canals. Today the High Street sits between at one the Main Line Canal and a railway line with level crossing, and at the other the Old Main line at Victoria Gardens. Factory Locks appear and we climb off the Birmingham Level up the three locks up to Factory Junction and join the Old Main Line on the Wolverhamptom level.

As you climb the Factory locks the scene is much changed from the old days. Many of the factories have gone but the bleakness of the area remains. Tipton has its problems one being some of its youth who use the locks in summer as swimming pools. This can appear intimidating but talking and humour and replacing the water after use usually deflects any agro. Today the pounds are frequently found empty and the water conservation locks ie anti vandal locks are heavily vandalised. Please don't be put off by its appearence, Tipton is full of canal history, a hard working town, and is probably more representative of the working days of the canal than the chocolate box image we give the life today.

At the top lock look closely at the two buildings alongside, one is a factory today but it was once a guaging station, and is probably just like the building that stood over the islands at Smethwick. On the other side is another factory that once used to be a Boatman's Mission.

Look at the junction end of the gauging building and you will see the two bricked up archs that were the entrances, arched topped doors once would have been here, with a lock gate just inside the doors. The canal kerb stones are still on the floor of the yard indicating where the canal arm was, so boats could access the building.
2006 the once engineering unit that occupied the building has left and the future of this unique building is in jeopody. New developments threaten to sweep it away, efforts being made to incorporate the existing building into a development of the site changing the role of the building but saving its structure.

On the other side of the canal just before the top lock and next to the pub is a building that is today industrail premises. The unit's occupier is the maker of wrought iron styled gates and other similar items. The building is in good order and seems to have a viable future.

This building was once a boatmans mission, and as you look at it today, its christian beginnings become obvious as what else but a church or religious building would have a roof with church styled gable ends. Again you can find one other such mission house on the BCN at Walsall see the section on the Walsall canal.