Autherley Junction

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Tettenhall and Autherley Canal and Aqueduct

legend

Staffs and Worcs Canal

B'ham and L'pool Jn Canal

Proposed Tettenhall Canal

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)Proposed new locks

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Stop lock

Autherley Junction

Half mile stretch between junctions

Aldersley Junction

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) Wolverhampton Locks

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Birmingham Canal

Autherley Junction. A narrowboat is descending the stop lock.

Toll Houses at the stop lock

Autherley Junction (grid reference SJ901020) is the name of the junction where the Shropshire Union Canal terminates and meets the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near to Oxley, north Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England.

A stop lock of minimal drop (a few inches) constrains the water of each canal.

It is 1 km. north of Aldersley Junction, an entry to the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

Autherley Junction opened in 1835, and almost immediately, most of the traffic which had previously used Aldersley Junction and travelled northwards on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal now used the new canal, and so only travelled for the half mile between the two junctions. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire company raised the tolls to a very high level, to compensate for the loss of revenue.^[1]

In order to resolve the situation, the company worked with the Birmingham Canal company and proposed the Tettenhall and Autherley Canal and Aqueduct. This would have left the Birmingham Canal just above lock 19, crossed the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal just below Aldersley Junction by an aqueduct made of iron, and then dropped down through three locks to join the canal above the stop lock. The plans were drawn up by Dugdale Houghton, a firm of surveyors from Birmingham,^[2] but the canal was never constructed, as the Staffordshire and Worcestershire company reduced their tolls rather than lose them altogether.^[1]