The Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal was completed in 1772 and links the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood in Staffordshire with the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire. Covering 46 miles, it has forty-three locks and today is frequented by leisure craft and walkers along its towpath. Once one of the major routes of the canal age, in its heyday it would have been thronged with boats carrying coal, iron, limestone, wood and much more besides. Here the original course and features of the canal are explored as well as its now-preserved form. Meet the people who drove, financed and met the challenges of its construction and the landowners and businessmen who benefited from its advent, as well as seeing the canal with fresh eyes as it is today.

Julian Souter details this most beguiling of waterways through a wealth of fascinating images, maps and documents and meticulously researched text. Myths are challenged and exploded and hitherto unknown aspects of the canal’s route and structures are revealed.