The Stratford Canal
Shakespeare country, barrel roof lock cottages, iron aqueducts and gourmet pubs
The 25-mile long Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is narrow and mostly rural. It links Shakespeare’s Stratford and the River Avon in the south, with the Worcester & Birmingham Canal close to Birmingham in the north. The canal takes boaters through the remains of Forest of Arden along the way.
The southern section of the canal, runs from Bancroft Basin in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon up to Lapworth. It is characterised by barrel roofed lock cottages and a series of split bridges with gaps for the tow ropes of boat horses.
The northern section has 19 locks running up from Lapworth. And then a 10-mile lock-free level stretch to the canal’s guillotine-gated stop-lock at Kings Norton Junction.
Completed in 1816 at a cost of £297,000, the canal has 54 locks, a 322-metre long tunnel, three high embankments and a reservoir. It also has a large single span brick aqueduct and three cast iron trough aqueducts, all unusually with towpaths at the level of the bottom of the canal.
