Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN)
The Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) still form the most concentrated canal network in the country. It was the key artery of the industrial revolution that transformed Birmingham and the Black Country into the ‘Workshop of the World’.
Industry was so densely crowded around the canals that when the railways arrived, rather than try to replace the canals they built interchange basins so that the canals could serve the crucial last link in the national transport chain.
This map covers the entire BCN as it was in 1900. Since then some 60 miles of the original have been abandoned, as have many of the basins and wharves.
The Lichfield line of the Wyrley and Essington canal is under active restoration. The Hatherton line and the Dudley No2 / Lapal line have active restoration groups but face significant challenges. Other lost sections are beyond hope.
Want to download the map to help you explore?
Here are two Google Maps that you can download for your personal use. (You will need to zoom in a lot to see the detail).
The map titled RSL shows canal as single lines, that titled RPL shows them as polygons that can be clicked to show more detail. Clicking the square brackets at the top right corner of the map will open it in your ‘Google My Maps’. See the ‘Explanatory Notes’ page for more detail.