Old photos of the BCN canals

Archive photos of the the Birmingham Canal Navigations
Index page

Today the navigable BCN network extends for about 100 miles, but in its heyday there were an additional 60 miles of interconnected waterways serving collieries, brickworks, quarries, industry and railway sidings.

This page provides links to posts containing archive photos of the lost sections BCN, and collecting these images is a never ending work in progress. For ease of research, the lost canals have been grouped into the recognisable geographic areas below. By clicking on these links you will be directed to more detailed index pages, which in turn link to individual posts covering each lost branch, loop or arm. I have stopped short of including every one of the hundreds of individual works basins, but that hasn't stopped the odd one or two being added where we have a particularly strong photographic record.

Whilst most of these "other 60 miles" are irretrievably lost, this section of the blog tries to provide cohesive sets of photos displayed in order,  giving you an idea of how they used to look.


If you have images of the missing sections or have additional information to add, please contact me through the comments section so they can be added to this publicly available resource. 


Birmingham city centre area
Birmingham to Smethwick area
Bradley Locks area
Cannock Extension Canal area
Dudley Canals area
Ridgacre area
Stourbridge area
Tipton area
Titford and Oldbury area
Wolverhampton area
Wyrley and Essington Canal area
Other waterways to the south and east

A map of the BCN drawn GR Jebb, their engineer as it was in 1913


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  canals alive. These images are reproduced for ease of research are are not necessarily the property of this blog and some may still be subject to copyright, and as such they should not be used for commercial gain without the explicit permission of the owner (whoever that may be). 




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