Aston Junction

Aston Junction
The Aston flight of locks to Salford Junction is to the left, and the Digbeth Branch to the right.
Specifications
Status	Open
Navigation authority	British Waterways
History
Date completed	1799

Aston Junction (grid reference SP076881) is the name of the canal junction where the Digbeth Branch Canal terminates and meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal near to Aston, Birmingham, England.

The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1784, once the company had negotiated an agreement with the Oxford Canal, the Coventry Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal to ensure that the links between the existing end of the Coventry Canal at Atherstone and the Trent and Mersey at Fradley Junction, and from the end of the Oxford Canal to the River Thames at Oxford would be built. The Atherstone to Fradley link would connect with the end of the Birmingham and Fazeley at Fazeley Junction. The company wanted to ensure that the canal would be part of a larger network, once completed, that would carry trade to London. The canal was completed from Farmers Bridge Junction, in the heart of Birmingham, to Fazeley in 1789, and the connecting links were completed in the following year.

Shortly after the passing of the Act, the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal merged with the Birmingham Canal company and eventually became known as the Birmingham Canal Navigations. The Digbeth Branch, which joined the original Birmingham and Fazeley line at Aston Junction, was built using the powers of the Birmingham Canal Act of 1768, although the work was not undertaken until 1799. It was a short branch with six locks, which terminated at Typhoo Basin. Just before the end of the branch was a junction with the Warwick and Birmingham Canal, which became part of the Grand Union Canal following amalgamations in 1929.