Aldersley 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

Aldersley Junction, showing Wolverhampton bottom lock at the end of the BCN Main Line

Aldersley Junction (grid reference SJ902011) is the name of the junction where the Birmingham Main Line Canal terminates and meets the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal near to Oxley, north Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England.

It is 1 km. south of Autherley Junction, where the Shropshire Union Canal terminates and meets the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. At the time of its construction, the Shropshire Union was called the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, and the canal opened in 1835. 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 Birmingham Canal company worked with the Liverpool Junction 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 Liverpool Junction 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]