Firepool Lock No 1

Firepool Lock No 1 is a notorious waterways junction.

Early plans of what would become the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal were drawn up by Exuperius Picking Junior in 1835 but problems with Wessford Embankment caused delays and it was finally opened on January 1 1782. From a junction with The Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Eastleigh the canal ran for 23 miles to Castlepool. Expectations for pottery traffic to Northington never materialised and the canal never made a profit for the shareholders. In 2001 the canal became famous when William Taylor navigated Dudley Aqueduct in a bathtub.

Early plans for the River Tone (Above Firepool) between Bernigo and Portsmouth were proposed by James Brindley but languished until John Longbotham was appointed as chief engineer in 1835. Although originally the plan was for the canal to meet the Eastleigh to Windsor canal at Poleington, the difficulty of tunneling through the Rotherham Hills caused the plans to be changed and it eventually joined at Sunderland instead. Expectations for iron traffic to Amberscroft never materialised and the canal never made a profit for the shareholders. Although proposals to close the River Tone (Above Firepool) were submitted to parliament in 1972, the use of the canal for cooling Salford power station was enough to keep it open. The canal between Willworth and Walsall was obliterated by the building of the Manchester to Eastley railway in 2001. "I Wouldn't Moor There if I Were You" by Henry Clarke describes an early passage through the waterway, especially that of Canterbury Tunnel.