Toll End Communication Canal in Tipton - Birmingham Canal Navigations

Toll End Communication Canal - BCN

Cycling expedition

25th October 2009

My search for obscure waterways draws me back to the Tipton area time and time again.

This is not because the area has any particular scenic beauty, far from it. In fact, much of it can best described as a post industrial wasteland, but nowhere else in the UK contains so many canals in such a small area. Of course, many of these waterways were abandoned in the middle of the last century but the desolate nature of the area means that, with a bit of poking around, telltale remains are still visible on the ground.

Tipton Green Branch Canal, middle lock chamber

The Toll End Communication Canal is a waterway with a confusing history, a hybrid never really knowing what it was. Soon after Brindley completed what we now refer to as the Old Main Line, a short 1/4 mile branch was dug to the east of Tipton Green in 1805, dropping down through three locks, known as the Tipton Green Branch. This initially terminated somewhere near the line of today's New Main Line at Watery Lane Junction. There is not a lot to see of this canal today, save the chamber of the middle lock which has been incorporated into a path.

The same scene as above in 1957

The following year the Tipton Green Branch was extended for a further mile, descending through four locks and following the line of what is now an open land drain to the side of Tipton Cemetry.

Toll End Branch Canal entrance from the Walsall Canal

Starting at the other end, a side arm of the Broadwaters Canal (now the Walsall Canal) was built in 1801, rising up through two locks to reach a new coal mine. Eight  years later, in 1809, the Toll End Branch was extended westwards, linking into the mid point of the Tipton Green Branch, with the addition of two more locks. There is little to see of the Toll End section today, apart from a raised water pipe spanning an infilled entrance, and a bricked up archway under Toll End Road.

Toll End Road bridge

Further west the canal path can be detected passing under Bridge Road before it is completely lost under industrial wasteland, but continued on up the hill next to Tipton Cemetry, kinking round to the right to join the mid point of the older Tipton Green Branch. The line of this sharp twist  is  still visible from the air in the form of a stand of trees (just above Thursfield Road on the map).

Toll End Communication Canal bed from Bridge Road Tipton

The area between the eastern end of the Tipton Green Branch and the western end of the Toll End Branch became home to the Horsley Ironworks until 1865, which supplied many of the fine canal bridges we see in the area today.The recent construction of a new road to replace the old railway level crossing has revealed an archway in the embankment behind Caggy's yard, which was probably the canal bridge. Sadly, the construction team were not enthusiastic about my request for a hands on investigation, hence no photo!

The construction of the New Main Line in 1829 cut through the Tipton Green Branch creating  Watery Lane Junction, which is now the site of Caggy's Boatyard.

So, this short 1 3/4 mile canal with its 9 locks was built in four stages over eight years to service the local mines and industry, until it was abandoned in 1966 and filled in in the 1970's.