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Daw End Branch Canal

View From Hopley's Bridge. © Geoff Pick - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Almost totally rural, the Daw End Branch - pronounced locally as 'Doe' - is an essential link in the Black Country's waterway system.

The canal runs for just over five miles from Catshill to Longwood on the northern Birmingham Canal Navigations, linking the Wyrley & Essington with the Rushall Canal. A small spur leading to Hayhead is now used as a boat club mooring.

In the 19th century, the Scott family mined high quality Silurian limestone from what is now Hayhead Wood Nature Reserve and took it by canal to feed the furnaces of the Black Country. It was also used for building Rushall Manor.

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