| The Warwick and Birmingham Canal
An event of importance to Yardley's economy came in the early
1790s. A Company was formed to build an artificial waterway from
the Digbeth Branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigation to Warwick,
and work began in 1793. A flight of six locks brought the canal
to summit level, three hundred and eighty feet, at Camp Hill,
which was to be maintained as far as Knowle. A feeder was taken
from Spark Brook east of the Stratford Turnpike to join the cut
north of Danford (Golden Hillock Road). At the Cole-Spark confluence
a long embankment was needed to maintain the level: brick tunnels
took the river and Hay Mill head-race beneath the canal. The gradient
of the Stockfield ridge was lessened on both sides by a tributary
valley, those of the Red Hill and Field Gate Brooks. The canal
made use of these, with a deep cut between the valley heads, and
at the high point below Yardley Road a two hundred and eighty-yard
tunnel was made. Boats had to be legged through this as there
was no towpath, and the horse was either taken aboard or led over
the top. Beyond the tunnel, where the land fell away to Deep More,
the canal turned sharply southward, up the valley of Westley Brook,
cutting off the eastern edge of Acocks Green Field. The brook
became a feeder, near what is now the east end of Malvern Road,
and thence the canal turned south-east into another cutting. Of
the original high brick bridges over Hay Hall Lane, Rushall Lane,
Woodcock Lane, and Rowe Leasowe Lane, only the third survives.
A wharf for Black Country coal (formerly brought by Joshua Yates's
carts nine miles from the pits), was made east of the tunnel,
behind Field Gate Farm, wharves for loading bricks and tiles for
export were built below Pinfold House, and opposite there were
others for loading sand and gravel. Fast flyboats drawn by several
horses sped between Camp Hill and Yardley Road.
The Warwick Canal was continued beyond the Avon to join the
Oxford Canal at Napton in 1799. It thus linked the B.C.N., and
thereby all the canals of the Mid1ands with the Thames and London.
Later its link with the Grand Junction Canal at Braunston gave
a better route to the capital. In 1816 it was possible to travel
from Yardley via the Warwick Canal to Kingswood Junction, thence
by way of the Stratford Canal to the Avon Navigation and the Severn.
Having long-distance traffic and short-haul boats paying tolls,
the Warwick Canal prospered. Yardley prospered with it: bricks
and tiles from many farm kilns were brought by waggon to the wharves
for distribution far and wide. Sand and gravel were quarried and
exported from the north end of Stock Field (off Kilmorie Road),
south of the coal wharf (off Francis Road), and north of Woodcock
Lane.
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