Birchills Junction

Birchills Junction
Birchills Junction with the Walsall Canal passing through the bridge to the right.
Specifications
Status	Open
Navigation authority	British Waterways
History
Date completed	1798
Date closed	1799
Date restored	1841

Birchills Junction (grid reference SK002000) is the canal junction at the northern limit of what is now called the Walsall Canal where it meets the Wyrley and Essington Canal main line, near Walsall, West Midlands, England. It opened in 1798, but lasted for little more than a year, until it was re-opened in 1841 when a connecting link was built to the Birmingham Canal Navigations' southern route to Walsall.

The Wyrley and Essington Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1792, as a way of delivering coal from the Wyrley and Essington coal fields to the towns of Wolverhampton to the west and Walsall to the east. The main line was to run from the coal fields down to Sneyd Junction, and continue westwards to reach the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Horseley Fields Junction, near Wolverhampton. A branch would run from Sneyd Junction eastwards to Birchills. Before construction work was complete, the company obtained a second Act in 1794, which authorised a line from near Birchills to Brownhills, passing through Bloxwich and Pelsall. From Brownhills it would drop through 30 locks on its route past Lichfield to reach Huddlesford Junction. This was on a route authorised by the Coventry Canal Act, but built by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, as part of a deal to ensure that that canal was part of a larger network and would therefore be profitable. The Wyrley and Essington main line was now considered to be the route from Horseley Fields to Birchills Junction via Sneyd Junction, and on to Huddlesford Junction. The route which climbed Wyrley Bank to the coal mines was now a branch, as was the final short section of the route between Birchills Junction and the basin where the original branch terminated.