HISTORY OF KXGIXEKKING.
Hook I.
558
I nchcs.
5 above low water at Liverpool.3 Ditto.
0 Ditto.
river Severn at Stourport, near tbe town of Bewdley. A eonnnunieation was then madewith the ports of Bristol, Hull, and Liverpool, and the Severn , the Humber, and theMersey. In 17G8, another act authorised a canal to be made from Birmingham , throughthe mining district of Oldbury and Bilstone, to the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, 3 miles east of Wolverhampton , a total distance of 22 miles.
The act for the communication with Hull was passed in 1783, when the Fazeley canal,20 miles in length, was made. 'Hie Coventry, Oxford, and Grand Junction canals, after-wards united London to these ports.
Feet.
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire - 352
At the Fazeley Junction - 219
In the year 1824, Mr. Telford was applied to on the subject of improving these canals,then deemed inadequate to the growing industry of the district; he found them littlebetter than crooked ditches, and with scarcely the appearance of a towing path. Aided bythe celebrated James Watt , he succeeded in cutting off the numerous bends in thecanals, and making one nearly straight from Birmingham to the summit at Smethwick ,where a new cut was made 70 feet in depth, and the length of the main line from Bir-mingham to Autherlcy reduced from 22 to 14 miles. The canal was enlarged to 40 feetin width, with perpendicular banks and walled sides, and the bridges to 52 feet in breadthbetween the abutments, so that the hauling-paths were continued without contracting thewater-way of the canal.
Embankment at flatten Park forms a reservoir of 80 acres, with a depth of 45 feet at thehead of the retaining bank, the bottom of which is above the Birmingham summit, so thatall the water it contains is rendered serviceable. The feeders of this great supply are fromthe old reservoirs at Oldbury and its neighbourhood.
Mr. Telford also removed the six locks, three ascending, and three descending, whichwere on the line between Birmingham and the Collieries; to effect this 1,697,000 cubicyards of earth were excavated in the distance of 2 miles; the slopes of the banks are 1.^horizontal to 1 perpendicular.
The greatest depth of cutting is 71 feet ; the water-way of the canal is 40 feet in width,and 5 feet 6 inches in depth. The whole is walled with stone, there is a towing-path oneach side 12 feet in width. Over this cutting arc numerous brick and stone bridges, theconstruction of which show great ingenuity ; several are built askew. At the point wherethe cutting is deepest is an iron bridge, 150 feet span, over which is the public roadway,26 feet in width ; the other two bridges are only 52 feet span.
An aqueduct of two arches near Spon Lane carries the canal across the new works; andat Smethwick is an elegant iron aqueduct, through which the surplus water is conveyed,from the upper level of the old canal across the new works into a feeder, which carries thewater to the reservoir before mentioned.
At Smethwick the upper level descends into the improved new line of canal, and betweenthis place and the town of Birmingham , a distance of 4jj miles, nearly 2 miles have beensaved; the quantity of earth removed to complete the three embankments and the inter-vening deep cutting was 370,000 yards. Here the canal is also walled on each side, has adouble towing path, and is 40 feet in width at the surface of the water : there are severalbrick skew bridges, some upwards of 50 feet span ; at Bloomfield is an excavation, extend-ing towards Deepfield, where the cutting is 90 feet in depth, and the canal 24 feet in width,and 5 in depth ; the sides are walled, and the towing path is continued on each side. Toeffect this more than 1,000,000 yards of rock and earth were removed.
Birmingham Canals. — The old Birmingham commences near that town, and at Smeth-wick there are three locks, rising in all 19 feet 9 inches ; at Autherley it locks down bymeans of 21 locks, 132 feet.
Birmingham and Fazeley Canal commences near Farmer’s Bridge in Birmingham , andpasses by part of the Coventry Canal to near Tamworth ; this distance of 15 miles has afall of 248 feet; the canal afterwards forms a part of the old Coventry, and continuesanother 5^ miles to Whittington Brook, where it communicates with the Wyrley andEssington canal. It is united to the Warwick and Birmingham by the Digbeth branch,which is in length 1 mile 2 furlongs, and has a fall of 40 feet by six locks ; there is a shorttunnel at Curdwath, and at Salford bridge an aqueduct of seven arches of 18 feet span each.By these canals a communication was effected between London and Hull.
Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was commenced under an act passed in theyear 1806. The whole length is 39 miles, besides the Newport branch of 9 ; its width atthe surface is 36 feet, at the bottom 16, and its depth 5 feet.
This canal leaves the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal about 3 miles from Wolver-hampton ; nearly opposite to Autherley, it passes on a level for 3 miles with one lock ;thence on to Market Drayton , a distance of 15 miles, where is the second level ; near thelast mentioned town are five more locks, and 5 miles beyond there, at Adderly, five others.