IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lindsworth Road, BIRMINGHAM, B30 3RS

Looking WNW down Lindsworth Road at the junction with Bradstock Road.

This part of the canal was built in the mid 1790s, though financial problems caused delays before the canal could open as far as Kingswood Junction (with the Grand Union) in 1803. The second stage (to Stratford) did not start until 1812, and was finished by 1815. Initial plans for a wide canal (the reason for the wide bridges and tunnels) were abandoned at an early stage.

Canalside industrial dereliction that is generally unusual on this canal is present here near its western end. The 1904 Edition of the Ordnance Survey large scale mapping shows that this was once the site of the Lifford Chemical Works, while Tunnel Lane, which now only exists on the west side of the canal, crossed it then by a swing bridge and continued eastwards. The swing bridge has long since been removed.

Derelict industrial buildings are a common sight on much of the West Midlands canal network, but unusual on the Stratford Canal. Here, however, the remains of the Lifford Chemical Works stand forlornly by the towpath not far from the northern end of the canal.

A boater on the northern section of the Stratford Canal will notice that the channel briefly narrows and might observe the tell-tale signs that there was once a bridge here. What is not so obvious is that this former bridge had a significant role in the restoration of this canal and the revival of the canal network nationally. Although the southern section of the Stratford Canal had ceased to be used in the 1920s, the northern section was slower to die - even so traffic had dried up by the outbreak of war in 1939. This prompted the Great Western Railway, as owners of the canal, to replace the swing bridge with a fixed structure effectively blocking navigation. After the war the Inland Waterways Association became active in trying to preserve the canal network and objected to this illegal impediment to navigation; the matter eventually had to be raised in the House of Lords in 1947. In response the GWR had to undertake to jack the bridge up whenever notice of passage was received. Although advantage of this concession was indeed taken, it was clearly not a satisfactory solution and a swing bridge was reinstated in 1950. An important point of principle had been won. With the closure of the adjacent chemical works, perversely the bridge eventually became little used for road traffic and was initially left permanently open and completely removed some time around 2006. See Image for a view of the bridge in operation.

On the Stratford upon Avon Canal. Originally a lift bridge, then fixed, blocking navigation, by the GWR who then owned the canal, when the mechanism became faulty and the canal was near derelict. This was grudgingly and laboriously jacked up on request after the matter was raised in the House of Lords. Finally the fixed bridge was replaced by this swing bridge in 1950. This has now been removed, leaving no bridge.