The Canals of Staffordshire 1872

CALDON CANAL, a canal in the NW of Staffordshire. It commences near Apedall Hall; goes south-south-eastward, post Newcastle-under-Lyne, to Handford; and deflects thence to the Grand Trunk canal, at Stoke-upon-Trent. 

DUDLEY CANAL, a canal connected with Dudley in Worcester, and running mainly in Stafford and Warwick. It was cut in 1776-93; is 13 miles long; and sends off a branch of 2 miles toward Stourbridge. It begins in the Birmingham and Worcester canal, near Selby Oak; goes by Lappal, Halesowen, and the vicinity of Dudley, to Tipton Green; proceeds thence to the Birmingham canal; traverses three tunnels, respectively 3,776, 623, and 2,926 yards long; rises 31 feet, and falls 13. The branch toward Stourbridge goes from Dudley-Woodside to the Stourbridge canal; and falls 85 feet, with 9 locks. 

GRAND TRUNK CANAL, or Trent and Mersey Canan, a canal in Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire. It was formed in 1777; is 93 miles long; and rises 326 feet, and falls 324 feet, with 91 locks. It begins in the Bridgewater canal, at Preston-Brook, in Cheshire; passes Northwich, Middlewich, Sandbach, Church Lawton, Newcastle-under-Lyne, Stone, Stafford, and Burton-upon-Trent; and joins the river Trent near the mouth of the Derwent, at Cavenish-Bridge, in Derbyshire. It sends off a branch, from Middlewich, to the Birmingham canal; is joined, at Church-Lawton, by the Macclesfield canal; sends off a branch, from Newcastle-under-Lyne, to Caldon; and sends off another branch, at Stafford, to Worcester. 

UTTOXETER CANAL a canal in Staffordshire; from Uttoxeter 18 miles north-westward, up the Churnet valley, to the Caldon canal near Cheddleton. 

WYRLEY AND ESSINGTON CANAL, a canal in the S of Staffordshire; from a junction with the Stafford and Birmingham canal, near Essington, east-north-eastward, past Wolverhampton, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Little Wyrley, Hammerwich, and Lichfield, to a junction with 
the Coventry canal near Huddlesford. It was begun to be formed in 1792; is 24 miles long; and falls 306 feet, with 36 locks. 

 

[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]