Moorings on the Titford Canal

The Titford Canal is a 2.6-kilometre branch of the Birmingham Canal Navigations rising from the Old Main Line at Oldbury through the six Titford Locks — the Crow — to Titford Pools, at 511 feet the highest navigable point on the BCN and indeed on the wider connected network. Opened in 1837 to serve local collieries and works, it survives today largely thanks to the volunteers of the BCN Society, whose base is at Titford Pump House.

The canal runs beneath and alongside the M5 viaduct for much of its length, an unlikely but memorable piece of cruising, before opening out into the Pools — a broad reservoir basin used as a feeder for the summit level and now surrounded by open ground and wildlife.

There are no commercial marinas on the Titford. Its interest to boat owners is as a destination and as accessible, sheltered mooring space in a quiet corner of a busy network — it is a fixture of the annual BCN Challenge and BCN Society rallies. Boaters looking for serviced long-stay moorings in this area use the Birmingham city-centre basins, Sherborne Wharf or the Black Country yards nearby, all within a short cruise. Sandwell & Dudley station and the M5 junction at Oldbury are minutes away.