April 2020
This branch of the canal is an oddity in the annals of the BCN. It is just long enough to contain the 13 locks it needed to connect the Cannock Extension Canal at Rumer Hill Junction through to the top end of the Staffs and Worcester's Churchbridge Branch Canal.
The odd thing about the fight was that whilst the land was bought and owned by the BCN, the locks were built by the Staffs and Worcester Canal Co, and they seem to have been completed before the Cannock Extension Canal reached the Junction. All this suggests that this back door into the BCN was more important to the neighbouring Staffs and worcs than the BCN and that is certainly born out in the trade it carried in its 100 year lifetime.
As recently as 1902 up to 12,000 loaded coal boats slogged their way down the flight every year, and that is only a small proportion of the coal with exited via the Canal's front door at Pelsall.
Boat Museum Society Nov 2017
Line of canals at Rumer Hill during open cast mining
Rumer Hill Junction
Lock Cottage at Rumer Hill
Top lock in decline
Last trace of the top Churchbridge Lock
Top Lock
Top Lock
Locks 1 - 3
Churchbridge Locks 1 - 4
Below Lock 4 taken from bridge (now the Orbital Business Park)
An iconic image of the destruction of the flight (Tom Manning)
Looking down the remains of the flight (Tom Manning)
Churchbridge rubble
Churchbridge Lock 5 (Tom Manning)
Tom Manning image
Locks 12 to 8
Locks 13 to 10
Aerial image of the lower half of the flight
Locks 11 to 10 (Tom Manning)
Locks 13 to 9
Churchbridge Lock 12 (Tom Manning)
The White Lion Inn beside the bottom lock
1926 - The White Lion sits on today's roundabout
Watling Street crossing over the canal
Gilpins Basin 1904
Gilpin's Works at the foot of Churchbridge Locks
The above photos have been assembled from various sources, including those freely found on the internet. My thanks go to the many photographers alive and dead who have contributed to this collection and in so doing, are keeping the memory of these lost canals alive. These images are reproduced for ease of research are are not necessarily the property of this blog, and as such should not be used for commercial gain without the explicit permission of the owner (whoever that may be).
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