Fradley Junction

Fradley Junction
The Swan at Fradley Junction
Specifications
Status	Open
Navigation authority	Canal and River Trust
History
Date completed	1790

Fradley Junction (grid reference SK140139) is a canal junction between Fradley and Alrewas near Lichfield, Staffordshire, England and the point at which the Coventry Canal joins the Trent and Mersey Canal. It opened in 1790, and several of the buildings around it, including The Swan public house, are grade II listed structures.

The Trent and Mersey Canal, at the time called the Grand Trunk Canal, was conceived as a link between Liverpool and Kingston upon Hull, although it followed a rather circuitous route, passing through the Potteries and Cheshire. It was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1766, and the 93-mile (150 km) route from Derwent Mouth to Preston Brook was completed in eleven years, opening in 1777.

The Coventry canal was authorised two years after the Trent and Mersey, in 1768, and should have run from Coventry, via Bedworth and Atherstone, to join the Grand Trunk Canal at Fradley. The first 10 miles (16 km) to Bedworth were completed in 1769, and a lucrative trade in coal soon developed between the Bedworth collieries and Coventry. The canal was completed to Atherstone in 1771, but the next stage involved a flight of eleven locks, and the money had run out. Consequently, construction stopped at Atherstone, some 21.4 miles (34.4 km) from Fradley.

No more progress was made until 1782, when the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was being proposed. The promotors wanted to ensure that it would be profitable if it was built, and this depended on it being part of a larger network, which would generated long-distance traffic. They therefore negotiated with the Oxford Canal, who agreed to complete their line to join the River Thames at Oxford, and hence open up the route to London. Negotiations with the Coventry Canal were a little more complex, and the final solution involved the Coventry Canal building 10.4 miles (16.7 km) of canal, including the flight of eleven locks and two more at Glascote, to meet with the proposed canal at Fazeley Junction. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal would then build half each of the final 11 miles (18 km) to link Fazeley Junction to Fradley, following the line authorised by the Coventry Canal's Act. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal was authorised in 1784, and work began. It was completed in 1789, and the network, including Fradley Junction, was operational by the following year.