Salford Junction

We approached Salford Junction along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal from the east. It looks as though the canal continues straight on, with two other canals joining from the south, but if we had wanted to stay on the B&F we'd have had to turn left at the second canal. As it was, we needed to take the Tame Valley Canal, so we kept straight on.


This junction is famously under the M6 and its Spaghetti Junction. Despite the concrete jungle in the sky there is a surprising amount of greenery down here. Just before the junction were these two fishermen. Did they come here for a bit of peace and quiet?


The first canal on the left (at Salford Junction South) is the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, aka the Grand Union.


The contrast between the cast iron towpath bridge and the precast concrete slab carrying the motorway is stark. It must have been an interesting problem for the motorway builders to preserve the canal and, presumably, not hinder traffic on it. Now the later bridge provides a canopy for the graffiti mongers as they carry out their clandestine spraying.

Between Salford Junction South and Salford Junction North is a signpost. It appears that some misguided person had the distances cast in kilometres. Now numbers have been stuck over the top, covering the "k" (in most instances), to make the sign read in miles.


Then comes the B&F (Digbeth Branch), with the site of Nechells Shallow Lock just the other side of the bridge.