The Coventry Canal

This canal was to run from Fradley Junction near Lichfield to Coventry (thirty-eight miles from Fradley). At Longford (thirty-four miles from Fradley), was the junction with the Oxford Canal.

Brindley and his staff made the survey for the canal and obtained the approval of Parliament in January 1768. Work on the canal commenced in December 1768 and soon after this the Coventry Canal Company was set up to build the canal. Its first meeting was on 19th February 1769, but Brindley was dismissed from the Company on 12th September 1769 mainly due to his high standards of construction, which were too expensive.

The Coventry Canal Co was running very low on money and they only managed to get as far as Atherston (sixteen and a half miles from Fradley) by the end of 1771. At this point construction of the canal ceased for seventeen years. The Canal was completed and opened in 1789.


Click image to enlarge:
  Coventry Canal: Atherstone Top Lock No 1 - June 1963. Covetry Canal: Coventry Basin Narrowboats moored - October 1995.  

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