GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Leamington South Junction: gwrls3941

Another aerial photograph of the southern approaches to Leamington in 1934. The Warwick and Napton Canal passes under both the LMS (ex L&NWR) and Great Western Railway here. The canal predated these railways by more than fifty years, being authorised on 14th May 1796 and formally opened on 19th December 1799 (although only opened for trade three months later). In 1845 the London and Birmingham Railway Company tried to buy the canal to convert it into a railway, but the offer was considered insufficient by the shareholders. In 1895 the canal’s owners agreed to amalgamate with the Birmingham and Warwick Canal and Grand Junction Canal and in 1917 these three independent canals placed themselves under joint management. In 1927 the canal was purchased by the Regents Canal Company for £8,641 and on 1st January 1929 became part of the Grand Union Canal. Starting in 1932 with Government assistance, the Grand Union Canal was modernised and widened to become a ‘broad’ canal (suitable for 12 foot 6 inch wide boats). This work was completed in 1934 and some success was had shipping imported iron and steel to the Midlands, but most of the bulk freight traffic never returned.

Robert Ferris

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