Two short salt-trade canals in Worcestershire, restored and reopened to link the River Severn with the Worcester & Birmingham Canal
The Droitwich Canals are two linked waterways, about seven miles in all with sixteen locks, that together join the River Severn to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The first is the Barge Canal, a broad canal opened in 1771 to designs by James Brindley, running from the Severn at Hawford up to Droitwich Spa. The second is the narrow Junction Canal of 1854, which carried on from the town to meet the Worcester & Birmingham at Hanbury.
Both were built to move salt. Droitwich sits on some of the richest brine springs in England, worked since Roman times, and the canals gave the town a cheap way to send its salt out to the Severn and the wider network. They lost that trade to the railways and were formally abandoned in 1939, after which they silted up and in places were built over.
Restoration was a long volunteer effort. The Droitwich Canals Trust, formed in 1973, worked for decades on the derelict line before a Heritage Lottery grant and a partnership with British Waterways funded the final work. The Barge Canal reopened in 2010 and the Junction Canal in 2011, joining the two ends back together.
The reopening matters most for the through route it completes: with the Severn and the Worcester & Birmingham, the Droitwich Canals form a compact circuit around mid-Worcestershire that boaters can cruise in a few days. The towpath is level and easy walking, passing quickly between the river, farmland and the edge of the town.
