Tame Valley Canal - Perry Locks

The canal, which was opened in 1844 runs for 81/2 miles from the Tame Valley Junction on the Walsall canal to Salford Junction just beneath the Graverley Hill interchange or Spaghetti Junction as it is known to the locals. Here it meets with the Birmingham & Fazeley canal coming from Birmingham and Farmers bridge locks and the Birmingham and Warwick Junction canal which was the route down to London via the Grand Junction canal. This canal was built by the BCN to help relieve the congestion at Farmers Bridge. The canal became very popular as it was dead straight with a flight of thirteen locks here at Perry Barr raising the water about 106 feet.

The photographs above show Perry Lock cottage on the left which is also an original BCN building. It also contains old stabling buildings and a gauging station. Leading away from the top lock (above right) the canal heads towards Tower Hill bridge and then onto Hamstead which was once well known for its colliery and its great mining disaster of 1908.

At Hamstead Colliery on the 4th March a fire broke out in the inset, close to the bottom of the downcast shaft. This was attributed to the ignition of a quantity of candles stored in a wooden box, and resulted in the loss of 25 lives. The Tame Valley canal played an important part in the transportation of coal from Hamstead.

Near to Walsall The Tame Valley canal is joined by the Rushall canal at Rushall junction. This canal was opened in 1847 also by the BCN and linked onto the Daw End canal at Longwood Junction and then on to the Wryley and Essington canal at Catshill in Brownhills. This became a popular route for coal carrying barges (consisting of a tug and five butty's) from the Cannock coalfields into Birmingham and beyond.