TAME VALLEY CANAL

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The 'Tame Valley Canal' is a relatively late (1844) canal in the West Midlands of England. It forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It takes its name from the roughly-parallel River Tame.

Contents

Geography

History

Features

Gallery

References

External links

Geography

The canal runs from Tame Valley Junction where it joins the Walsall Canal near Ocker Hill and Toll End, and terminates at Salford Junction where it meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and the Grand Union Canal. It is 8.5 miles long and has twin towpaths throughout.
Between Tame Valley Junction and Rushall Junction it goes under the Midland Metro near Wednesbury and crosses over the former Grand Junction Railway (now part of the Chase Line) by aqueduct, near Tame Bridge Parkway railway station (an unusual case of the railway pre-dating a neighbouring canal).
It passes over the M5 motorway near the interchange with the M6 motorway (M6 junction 8) and joins the Rushall Canal at Rushall Junction, inside the triangle formed by the motorway junction. East of Rushall Junction the canal passes under another arm of the M5. At Hamstead the remains of a wharf can be seen, This served the former Hamstead Colliery. Further east, there are two more aqueducts (Spouthouse Lane and Piercy, the latter over the Old Walsall Road), and a deep cutting in 200-million year old sandstone, under Freeth Bridge (now restricted to pedestrians and bikes only) at Tower Hill. There are no locks on this section, which is at the Walsall Level.
The thirteen Perry Barr Locks, where the level drops 106 feet, start just beyond the A34. The original lock keepers cottages remain. In the adjacent Perry Park, near Alexander Stadium, is a feeder reservoir. From there, the canal passes under the M6 three times, including Gravelly Hill Interchange (Spaghetti Junction), shortly after which it terminates, at Salford Junction.

History

The canal was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1839 and opened in 1844. Its engineer was James Walker.

Features

Point	Coordinates (With links to map and aerial photo sources)	OS Grid Ref	Miles
Tame Valley Junction			0.0
Gold Hill Wharf			0.4
Holloway Bank Wharf			1.0
Chase Line crossing
Crosses M5 motorway (west arm)
Crosses River Tame			3.5
Rushall Junction			3.5
M5 motorway (east arm) crosses
A4041 crosses
Green Lane footbridge
Hamstead Wharf and basin (site of)			4.4
Spouthouse Lane Aqueduct
Piercy Aqueduct
Freeth Bridge
Perry Barr Top Lock (1)			5.5
Perry Reservoir
Perry Barr Lock 10
Perry Barr Lock 11
Perry Barr Lock 12
Perry Barr Lock 13
Salford Junction			8.5

Gallery

References

★ Canal Companion - Birmingham Canal Navigations, , Michael, Pearson, J. M. Pearson & Associates, ,

External links

★ Waterscape: Tame Valley Canal

★ Up the Cut

★ Photographic guide