Walking the canals from Birmingham to Haywood Junction

During July 2019, I walked the canals from Birmingham to Haywood Junction (which is near Stafford). I also did the Wednesbury Oak Loop of the Old Line and a section of the New Line between Tipton and West Bromwich. Having done these, then together with the canals I've walked during previous holidays, I have now completed most of the canals near Birmingham.

The map below shows where I walked. I started at Old Turn Junction (OTJ) in Birmingham which is on the right-hand side of the map. This is where the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal (b&f) starts. I walked NorthEast along the b&f through Aston Junction (AJ) and Salford Junction (SJ) to its other end which is at Fazeley Junction (FaJ). I then switched to the Coventry Canal (c) and then walked NorthWest until it ends at Fradley Junction (FrJ) which is near Lichfield. I also walked part of the Trent and Mersey Canal (t&m) until its junction with the Staff and Worcs Canal (s&w) which is at Haywood Junction (HJ) which is not far from Stafford.

Each day I travelled by public transport from a hotel in Lichfield to where I finished walking the previous day. As there are few/no buses to the places I want to go to on a Sunday, on Sunday July 14th I had a break from walking from Birmingham to Haywood Junction. As it's easy to get to and get around the Birmingham area on a Sunday, I did the Wednesbury Oak Loop of the Old Line between Bradley (where it ends) and Deepfields Junction where it joins the canal from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. This used to be part of Brindley's route between those towns but Telford decided to create a shorter route as the Wednesday Oak Loop is too circuitous. Only the bit from Deepfields Junction to Bradley survives. I also walked a section of the New Line between Factory Junction (near Tipton) and Spon Lane Junction (in West Bromwich).

To help me walk along these canals, I looked at the Pearson's Canal Companion for the "Stourport Ring" as this has lots of details about the canals in this area. The numbers on the map below refer to the map numbers in the Pearson's guide.

                                |              |                     |                  |
                                | t&m          | c                   | tv               | bcn
               HJ      t&m      |       c      |       b&f        SJ |    b&f  AJ  b&f  |
          -----.----------------.--------------.----------------.----.----------.-------. OTJ   Birmingham
          t&m  |  28 27 26 25  FrJ  25 24 23  FaJ  23 22 21 20  |         20    |  20   |
               |s&w                                             |sc             |db     | w&b
               |            Lichfield                           |               |       |
Stafford 

Here are links to web pages giving more details about each day's walking. Each of these web pages has a map and some photos:

Tue Jul 09: Birmingham and Fazeley: from Birmingham to Minworth
Wed Jul 10: Birmingham and Fazeley: from Minworth to Fazeley Junction
Thu Jul 11: Coventry: from Fazeley Junction to North of Huddlesford
Fri Jul 12: Coventry/Trent&Mersey: from North of Huddlesford to Bromley Hayes
Sat Jul 13: Trent&Mersey: from Bromley Hayes to Brereton
Sun Jul 14: BCN: from Bradley to Deepfields Junction
Sun Jul 14: BCN: from Factory Junction to Spon Lane Junction
Mon Jul 15: Trent&Mersey: from Brereton to Haywood Junction

Here is an index to the abbreviations used on the map for the names of places and canals. The postcodes are only approximate. Each Google Map link goes to the postcode in Google Maps.

Link to the index page that has links to other holidays