Birmingham Canal Navigations: Old Main Loop Line - The Canal Guide: Britain's 50 Best Canals - page 5

The Gower Branch Canal drops away from Brades Hall Junction through the Brades Locks .
The character of the canal changes abruptly at Oldbury as the M5 is in close proximity to
the canal for the next 2km, mostly overhead. As with the River Tame in Birmingham, an el-
evated route over a waterway has proved to be the most acceptable line for a motorway to be
squeezed through the city.
North Junction and South Junction of the closed Oldbury Loop Line are still visible and the
Houghton Branch Canal leads away under the motorway. Once under what can be a useful
canopy for a rainy day, Oldbury Locks Junction accepts the Titford Canal, which descends
through six locks from the Crow, a feeder from Rotton Park Reservoir.
The increasingly complex concrete jungle intensifies as the A457 passes between canal
and motorway, and the canal comes out into the open air for a breather. At one point there
is a traditional brick-arched bridge over the canal, out of place among all the vast concrete