Grand Union Canal UK Inland Waterways Route Blue Towel

Grand Union Canal Route Map UK Waterways Blue. The Grand Union, formerly named as the Grand Junction Canal, connects Brentford on the river Thames with Braunston in Northamptonshire and the Oxford Canal. It is rightly regarded as the M1 motorway of canals as it was constructed to speed up the journey time between Birmingham and London. The Grand Union cut almost 60 miles off the original route from Birmingham to London, which connected with the Thames at Oxford and was prone to poor navigation conditions and water shortages. William Jessop and James Barnes engineered the start of construction from both ends of the route in 1793. It wasn’t until 1805 before they completed the route due in the main to major problems with the Blisworth Tunnel construction at Stoke Bruerne.The original tunnel collapsed in 1796, eventually a new tunnel, designed by John Rennie, was pushed through Blisworth Hill and the link was completed. The canal linked London’s Limehouse Basin and Birmingham’s Salford Junction, some 158 miles and contains 178 locks and 5 tunnels. By 1871 the tunnels at Braunston and Blisworth had become bottlenecked and they slowed the large volumes of traffic using the canal. Steam tugs were introduced and pulled long strings of boats through rather than the usual manpower. About this time the famous major carriers, Fellows Morton and Clayton were the driving force and encouraged the union of the Grand Junction, Grand Union, and Leicester Northampton Canals to generate more traffic. During the WWII war years, extensive use was made of the Grand Union to transport munitions from Industrial companies in the midlands to the London docks and it’s waiting ships.