Waterways Walks: The Lichfield Canal Revisited

Way way back in the mists of time - well March 2018 actually - I staged an intrepid Staffordshire stroll assessing the progress being made with the restoration of the Lichfield Canal. My intention has always been to return for a further look, only for a thing called Covid to intervene and all of a sudden four years have come and gone. Now at last an overdue sequel can finally take place, with the aim of discovering unseen stretches of the lost waterway as well as catching up with developments at Borrowcop Locks, Gallows Wharf and Fosseway Heaths...

In terms of a brief recap, the Lichfield Canal operated from the 1790s to the 1950s covering a seven mile stretch between the Wyrley & Essington at Ogley Junction (near Brownhills) and the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford. The entire route was abandoned during the 1960s but the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust (LHCRT) are now endeavouring to resurrect this lost link with work underway at several locations. It is a project I wholeheartedly support.

- Cross City train at Lichfield Trent Valley -

Friday 25th March 2022 and my starting point will be Lichfield Trent Valley, the northernmost terminus of the suburban Cross City line up from Brum. This will never be among my most favourite of railway stations - a sentiment that explains why I haven't set foot here for over ten years - but it has been slightly improved from what I remember of it. The old shedlike booking office has thankfully disappeared, replaced by a metallic capsule flanked by the taxi ranks. Birmingham trains use the plain and simple upper level (platform 3) whereas the lower levels are served by the Trent Valley main line between Crewe and Euston. Platform 2 suffers the dubious honour of hosting a paving slab feature listing the mileage to London and Glasgow. 

- Huddlesford Junction -

Exiting via the station driveway, I note demolition work is underway at the former GKN Sinter Metals plant near Crossfield Road. The Trent Valley pub as was has been a Humpty Dumpty kiddies nursery for a good few years but I get pictures of it for old times' sake before joining Cappers Lane past a HS2 construction compound. My morning musings will focus upon the small village of Huddlesford, accessible via Park Lane with the railway always omnipresent . Huddlesford has a long waterways history as the location where the Lichfield Canal meets its Coventry Canal counterpart, albeit the junction fingerpost soon makes it clear that there isn't a navigable connection to Ogley Hay anymore. Indeed, the remaining stub of the Lichfield Canal here acts purely as a private moorings base for the resident cruising club and the footbridge is gated off in thwarting my hopes of full towpath reconnaissance. 

- The Plough, Huddlesford -

Hopefully the day will eventually come when a fully restored Lichfield Canal can make this a properly operating junction again, but in the meantime I can nibble on the Coventry Canal for my fix of watery scenery. I don't go too far, just a couple of bridges on towards Whittington, but that's more than sufficient for saying hello to various boat crews and taking in some farmyard fragrances. I turn around at Bridge 81 and backtrack to No. 83 to see whether the Plough Inn is open yet. Not only has the day's trading already commenced, their canalside patio is very popular with coffee-loving gentlefolk and maybe a hiker or two. Sitting outside seems the sensible thing to do in such sunny conditions so I collect a Timothy Taylor's Landlord and commandeer one of the beer tables - ah, this is the life!

- Proposed Canal Course at Darnford Park -

There isn't really much else to Huddlesford apart from the pub and the canal, except for a handful of cottages and possibly the King's Orchard Marina. Pint supped, I leave the Plough to its gaggle of lunching ladies and plot where I might next intercept the Lichfield Canal. Cappers Lane and Darnford Lift Bridge are tempting but I need to research them in more detail, hence I play it safe by proceeding straight to Darnford Park. This area of public open space acts as a green ribbon hugging the A38 dual carriageway on the south-eastern extremities of the city; preliminary excavation works back in 2012 marked out the intended new course of the canal including a proposed basin site. Should the plans come to fruition a staircase lock will be built here along with two tunnels, one beneath each of the main roads in the vicinity. 

- Canal Cottage at Borrowcop Locks -

The Darnford Park section is very much at the earthwork stage for the moment whereas there's a discernible sense of physical canal infrastructure once you cross the A51 Tamworth Road. Borrowcop Locks were the highlight of my visit back in 2018, forming part of a heritage trail that really whets the appetite for what could be possible as the project continues. Locks 24 to 26 take centre stage where a small portion of the canal has symbolically been returned to water, complete with a family of ducks. BCN Cottage 265 catches my eye as a traditional lock-keeper's residence, then an informative banner tells me about plans to create a deeper cutting so that the canal can pass under Cricket Lane. 

- Gallows Wharf -

Cricket Lane itself seems to be awash with daffodils before I track along Tamworth Road, passing a mock narrowboat and then veering off behind the FishFace takeaway. Gallows Wharf has been brought back to life at St John's Bridge (London Road), cue a salmon-pink outbuilding being accompanied by benches and some old-fashioned signwriting. When I covered this section four years ago I had to approach from Shortbutts Lane but this time around my curiosity takes me straight on beside the Lichfield Southern Bypass. This allows me to get a better understanding of how the restored canal will be rerouted from its original course, passing the building sites of Axten Avenue and St John's Grange because it isn't possible to recreate the old leg up by the Duke of Wellington.

- Building the Bend at Falkland Road -

Falkland Road and Fosseway Heaths were a prime area of activity back in 2018 and this part of the scheme has really come on apace since I last saw it. The most impressive element has to be the construction of what will be known as 'Railway Turn', where the canal dramatically curves close to the site of Lock 19. New retaining walls now clearly define the channel where previously I was trying to make sense of sandy mounds - there are a choice of paths leading into the Fosseway Heaths Nature Reserve and onwards to Fosseway Lane's disused level crossing, presumably with an ever more overgrown former signal box.

- Sandfields Pumping Station -

I don't fully investigate Fosseway Heaths on this occasion, preferring instead to hunt down an important piece of architecture I completely missed in 2018. The edifice in question is the Sandfields Pumping Station off Chesterfield Road, an imposing facility that has latterly been preserved by the Lichfield Waterworks Trust. Retaining its Victorian pumping engine, the main building dates from 1873 albeit with a 1960s extension grafted onto the side. I'm too late for any tours although I understand it is possible for small groups of visitors to be shown around on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

- Erasmus Darwin Public Art -

I might have concluded the canal components of my trip but there's still beery business I want to attend to in the centre of Lichfield. Getting there involves a dabble with the Darwin Park estate from whence an enticing landscaped boulevard strikes straight for the heart of the city. Along the way I encounter a modern sculpture dedicated to the physician and philosopher Erasmus Darwin, showing him in a quartet of poses variously clutching a quill, a plant or a magnifying glass. I tiptoe through the Festival Gardens and along Sandford Street to reach Lichfield Marketplace for a quick hello to Dr Johnson's statue. 

- The Whippet Inn Micropub -

Right then, some pubs to finish. Two neighbouring micropubs are foremost in my thoughts, starting with the Whippet Inn where I was unexpectedly invited to meet and stroke someone's pet grass snake! I don't know whether this kind of thing happens regularly in Lichfield but it's certainly unusual in my experiences so I had to double check on Twitter whether any fellow bloggers had endured similar encounters - the resultant exchanges revealed pub rabbits, ferrets and even an owl (thanks to all who got involved, especially Jane, Simon, Martin and Beermat). The beer seems almost incidental after that although I did savour a cracking pint of Nightshift Coffee Stout backed up with an equally excellent Leatherbritches Hairy Helmet in Beerbohm next door; sitting upstairs in an armchair throne here felt very refined indeed, and they have an enviable selection of Belgian beers I was sorely tempted to sample. Alas the Duke of York required my attendance on Greenhill for Joules hospitality and a scotch egg snack, and with that my Lichfield Larks are ended. Cheers!