Bentley Canal, Anson Junction

Bentley Canal

Anson Junction

December 2009

I would like to report that after 3.5 miles of near total obliteration, the eastern end of the Bentley Canal comes to a glorious conclusion. Sadly, that would be quite untrue, although it does end in water.

The new Black Country Spine Road slices across the eastern extremity of this waterway, leaving less than half a mile of track to it's conclusion on the Anson Branch Canal. The course is picked up again, but this time overlaid by a patchwork of allotments running down the back of Wrexham Avenue.

Bentley Canal's eastern extremity, under allotments at Wrexham Avenue

Access to this stretch is tricky, and whilst you can't wander across the potatos and runner beans, you can exit at the bottom end of Wrexham Avenue to reach the Anson Canal embankment at the site of the Rea Aqueduct. From the Anson towpath you can backtrack and identify the entrance to the Bentley Canal as it passes under a lonely pipe bridge set amid the reeds.

Bentley Canal's junction with the Anson Branch 2009

I guess that the saving grace is that there is still water in the Anson Canal at the old junction, which adds some scope for a final reflection filled photo.