Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Park Lime Pits are designated as a nature reserve. Beyond the Railway Aqueduct, crossing
the Walsall to Water Orton line, Rushall Hall lies to the west. It was attacked in 1643 by
Prince Rupert and made a Royalist headquarters for a short period of time. The canal is now
out into rural farmland.
Beyond Longwood Bridge, crossed by the A454 and Beacon Way, the head of the canal
lies to the left, now moorings for Longwood Boat Club. It served Hayhead limeworks, which
mined high-grade Silurian limestone and now has Hayhead Nature Trail.
Longwood Junction was set 600m from the head of the canal in 1847 to link the Rushall
Canal, an almost straight cut to the south, running through the suburbs of Walsall, although
the canal provides a green lane with little indication of the residential development that has
taken place. This route offered a faster line to carry Cannock coal away to the south-east.
White lilies and dog roses line the canal. There are clumps of elder bushes and the setting is
occupied by Canada geese, moorhens and the occasional tern.
A moat and a golf course are located to the west of the first pair of locks, with only the
B4151 crossing to disturb the following 2km straight pound. The remaining seven locks are
spread over 900m, crossed by the A34 and with another golf course to the west.
The canal now moves from Walsall to Sandwell and traffic noise gradually builds up. The
Beacon Way and sets of powerlines from a substation cross before the canal passes into the
triangular junction 8 of the M6 where the M5 joins. The canal had its own junction here first,
the Rushall Canal joining the Tame Valley Canal at Rushall Junction downwind of a large
sewage works.
The Rushall Flight on a peaceful summer evening with the M6 traffic barely audible
.
