Birmingham Mini Ring

Photo Gallery

Visit the Photo Gallery

Description of the Route

We'll describe a journey clockwise around the ring, starting at Kings Norton Junction.

Worcester & Birmingham Canal

A lovely green corridor takes us through the suburbs of Birmingham, passing Bournville and Edgbaston on the way.

Houses and light industries close in on the canal from time to time, and Birmingham University comes close on the right hand side.

The canal ends at Gas Street Basin where a strip of land, known as Worcester Bar once split the basin in half until Parliament permitted the construction of a stop lock, now with its gates removed.

Birmingham Canal Navigations

Cruising through the former stop lock at Worcester Bar takes us onto the Birmingham Canal Navigations which extend throughout the West Midlands and which we follow for just a few hundred yards to the right turn at Old Turn Junction.

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal

The 13 locks at Farmers Bridge are the first on this cruise as we descend between the modern high rise offices and apartments, gradually leaving the centre of Birmingham behind.  At Aston Junction the canal continues almost straight ahead through Aston locks while we turn to the right onto the Digbeth Branch.

Almost immediately we descend through the 6 Ashted Locks, with Ashted tunnel being immediately below the first of these locks.  The branch ends at Digbeth or Typhoo Basin but we turn left at Digbeth Junction just before the basin.

Grand Union Canal

The left turn at Digbeth Junction takes us onto a branch of the Grand Union Canal, previously separated by another bar, known as Warwick Bar.  Once again a stop lock allows us to cruise through now and we soon reach Bordesley Junction where the main line of the Grand Union Canal from Salford Junction joins us from the left.

The 6 narrow Camp Hill Locks raise us to the summit pound of the Grand Union Canal.  These locks remained narrow after the improvement scheme which saw the other Grand Union Canal's narrow locks converted to broad locks.

The long summit pound takes us along another surprisingly green corridor out of Birmingham.  Running in a shallow cutting for much of the way there are few views to be seen beyond the sides of the embankments.

Catherine de Barnes is the first village outside Birmingham and is quickly followed by Knowle where 5 broad locks (the only broad locks on the ring) lowers us down from the summit level.  A short cruise brings us to the right turn at Kingswood Junction.

Lapworth Link

This short link joins the Grand Union and Stratford upon Avon Canals together.  There's a single junction with the Grand Union Canal and a triangular junction with the Stratford upon Avon Canal, with locks on two of the sides, so check your guides carefully if you're cruising this way for the first time.

Stratford upon Avon Canal

We join the middle of the Stratford upon Avon Canal and immediately climb through 19 locks to reach the summit pound of the canal.  Narrow locks make the going easy, although some of the pounds are so short that it's difficult to pass two full length narrowboats between some of the locks.

The work isn't finished after the locks, as there are two manually operated lifting bridges which are wound up and down using the same windlass as for operating the locks.  The third and final lifting bridge is power operated.

An unusual guillotine lock with both gates fixed open near Kings Norton Junction allows boats to cruise through to complete the journey around the Birmingham Mini Ring.

Links

Canal Societies

• Birmingham Canal Navigations Society
• Stratford upon Avon Canal Society
• Worcester & Birmingham Canal Society

Dimensions and Features

Operator