History of the Dudley No 2 Canal
There are two Dudley Canals. The Number 2 line runs from the Number 1 at Parkhead Junction to Selly Oak where it meets the Worcester & Birmingham Canal. It is navigable between Parkhead and Hawne Basin, a former GWR railway interchange. The remainder, also called the Selly Oak Extension or Lapal Canal, is being restored.
The canal was built on the Birmingham level of the BCN at 453 feet and contains no locks throughout its length of just under 11 miles. Construction was proposed in 1792 and the line opened in 1798. At 3,795 yards (3,467m) the Lapal Tunnel is the fourth longest canal tunnel ever built in Britain. In 1841 a novel system was devised to aid passage through its claustrophobic bore by means of an artificial current created by stop planks and a steam engine near the western portal. The massive Leasowes embankment is even now considered a substantial feat of engineering.
The effects of mining subsidence led to profitability being eroded by high costs of maintenance and the advent of improved workings such as the Netherton Tunnel of 1858 only served to emphasise the Number 2's deficiencies. Its fate was sealed when the Lapal Tunnel, always prone to collapse, suffered yet another roof fall in 1917 and was permanently closed. Legal abandonment followed in the 1950s though trade continued either side of the tunnel for several years afterwards.
At the Netherton end of the Number 2 the Two-Lock Line offered a short cut to the Number 1 by avoiding Parkhead Junction and from 1858 it was considered to be part of the main line. Mining subsidence led to its demise by the early 20th Century and the route for the Dudley Canals again became via Parkhead.
