Rebuilding the Warwick Canals

Working the Waterways: NarrowBoat, Summer 2019

Alan Thorpe

Alan Thorpe studies a series of images taken in the early 1930s showing the widening and improving of today’s northern Grand Union Canal

The three Warwick canals, comprising the Warwick & Birmingham, Warwick & Napton, and Birmingham & Warwick Junction, were purchased by the Regent’s Canal & Dock Company during its negotiations on merging with the Grand Junction Canal Company. Two bills were put before Parliament and Royal Assent was given on 3rd August 1928 authorising the takeovers. These allowed the Grand Junction to be amalgamated with the Regent’s Canal & Dock Company to create the Grand Union Canal Company (GUCC) on 1st January 1929, under the Regent’s Canal & Dock Company (Grand Junction Canal Purchase) Act of 1928. The three Warwick canals were also incorporated into the new GUCC under the separate Regent’s Canal & Dock Company (Warwick Canals Purchase) Act of 1928. The latter became known as the Warwick Canals Section. Now under the unified control of a single concern, new investment in the Warwick canals could begin. The primary aim was to widen the single lo…

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