Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/717

 tunnels in its course. That at West Heath is two thousand seven hundred yards long, 18 feet high and 18½ feet wide within the arch, and the depth of water therein is 7½ feet; at Tardebig is another of five hundred yards in length; that at Shortwood is four hundred yards long; at Oddingley is one of a hundred and twenty yards; and at Edgbaston one a hundred and ten yards in length.

From the Birmingham Canal, the first fourteen miles is level; and in the remaining fifteen miles there is a fall of 428 feet by seventy-one locks, which are 15 feet wide and 81 feet long each, to the River Severn.

Where the summit pound of this canal connects with the Birmingham and the Dudley and Stratford Canals, stop-locks are erected, which the several companies may shut and lock up when the supplies of this or the other canals fail.

The Worcester and Birmingham Canal is the direct communication between the River Severn and the town of Birmingham, and by that means forms a connection with the Rivers Trent and Mersey, and all the great trading towns in the north of England; and by its junction with the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, it communicates with all the principal towns in the eastern part of the kingdom; it is also the channel for supplying Worcester and the borders of the Severn down to Tewkesbury and Gloucester, with coal; and in return, conveys the hops and cider of that part of the country northward, and more particularly affords a ready means for the export of the Birmingham Manufactures, through the port of Bristol, to any part of the world.

WORSLEY BROOK
(SEE BRIDGEWATER'S CANAL)

WREAK AND EYE RIVERS OR LEICESTER AND MELTON MOWBRAY NAVIGATION.
31 George III. Cap. 77, Royal Assent 6th June, 1791.

40 George III. Cap. 55, Royal Assent 20th June, 1800.

THE first act for rendering navigable the Rivers Wreak and Eye, was obtained with a view to complete the communication between Leicester and Melton Mowbray, into the navigation from