Ogley Junction

Ogley Junction
The towpath bridge over the Lichfield Canal at Ogley Junction
Specifications
Status	Open
Navigation authority	British Waterways
History
Date completed	1800

Ogley Junction (grid reference SK056060), on the Staffordshire county border near Brownhills, West Midlands, England, is a historic canal junction on the Wyrley and Essington Canal where the Anglesey Branch left the main line (which led to the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford Junction, near Lichfield).

The line of the Wyrley and Essington Canal which passes through the site of Ogley Junction was part of a revised plan for the canal. As originally authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1792, it consisted of a main line from collieries at Wyrley and Essington to the Birmingham Canal Navigations at Horseley Fields Junction, near Wolverhampton, with a branch to Birchills, to the north of Walsall. Before construction was completed, a second Act obtained in 1794 authorised a large extension to the east, running from Birchills Junction, where a short stub to the original terminus remained, through Pelsall to Brownhills, where there were coal mines, and then dropping through thirteen locks to Huddlesford Junction. Huddlesford was on the line of the Coventry Canal, although that section had been built by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, under a deal which they had negotiated to ensure that there were routes which were likely to guarantee that the new canal was profitable. The old main line, from Sneyd Junction to Wyrley, became a branch. The new main line was opened throughout in 1797.