Coventry Canal

The Coventry Canal is a narrow waterway running 61 kilometres north from Coventry to Fradley Junction near Lichfield. It passes through or alongside Bedworth, Nuneaton, Atherstone, Polesworth and Tamworth. The canal links with the Ashby, Birmingham and Fazeley, Oxford and Trent and Mersey canals, forming part of the Warwickshire ring. Boats up to 21.9 metres long, 2.1 metres wide and with 1.98 metres headroom can use it. Some maps show a middle section as the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, but the Canal and River Trust treats the whole route as the Coventry Canal. The canal was engineered by James Brindley and opened in stages between 1769 and 1789. Financial difficulties led to Thomas Yeoman taking over from Brindley and Thomas Dadford advising on the Tame Aqueduct. The canal carried trade between Birmingham and London for many years, surviving competition from the Grand Junction Canal. Dividends were paid until 1947 and the waterway remains navigable today. The Coventry Canal Society, founded in 1957, promotes its use and hosts the Mercia Canoe Club. At Coventry Canal Basin, restored 18th-century buildings and a listed Canal Bridge stand beside the water. The canal passes under hump-back road bridges near Foleshill and Longford before reaching Hawkesbury Junction, where an iron bridge crosses the start of the Oxford Canal. Eleven locks at Atherstone lower the level by 24 metres, and two Glascote locks drop it a further 4.2 metres. North of Tamworth, at Fazeley Junction, boats can turn towards Birmingham or continue to Fradley Junction to join the Trent and Mersey Canal.