The Birmingham Canal Navigations comprise the greatest concentration of waterways in Britain. Over the course of a century, from the original Birmingham Canal of 1769, they grew to their greatest extent of almost 160 miles, all within about a 12-mile radius of their geographical centre of Walsall. The network was a major driver of the great industrial development of Birmingham and the Black Country, carrying vast quantities of raw materials and finished goods into the twentieth century. Following decades of decline, the BCN is once more an important player in the regeneration of the region's centres and the growth of leisure. With 140 illustrations, including maps and archive photographs, this book includes: the beginnings and expansion of the network; subsequent improvements to the system; supplying the water; the people who worked the BCN; trials and tribulations, including inclement weather, subsidence, breaches, wartime and accidents; the impact and influence of the railways, and finally its decline and subsequent transition into a New Canal Age.

A tourist map featuring the waterway corridors at 1:50,000. It shows boat user facilities with details of boatyards, boat hire and boat trip operators. It provides town plans of Birmingham, Coventry and Nuneaton. It features history of the 3 canals and a guide to the canals.

Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth, bringing coal and merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically, it continued to grow and absorb neighbouring communities, a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network, Birmingham's canals, including the Worcester & Birmingham, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Canal Navigation, retain their original identity – and most are still in water and used regularly, albeit in different ways to their original industrial purpose. Fully updated and illustrated with stunning new photographs, this book captures the heritage, development and modern role of Birmingham's canals in a way that will appeal to canal users as well as those with a wider interest in Britain's second most populous city.