Editing Grand Union Canal (section)

==History==
{{more citations needed|section|date=July 2022}}
{{further|Grand Junction Canal#History}}

The Grand Union Canal in its current form came into being on 1 January 1929<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Back to Canals |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000669/19290101/154/0008 |newspaper=Birmingham Daily Gazette |location=England |date=1 January 1929 |access-date=23 April 2024 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>  when the [[Regent's Canal]] and the [[Grand Junction Canal]] agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the only way to remain competitive against rail and newly developing road transport:{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

* [[Regent's Canal]]
* [[Hertford Union Canal]] – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1857
;Main Line
* '''Warwick and Napton Canal''' – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1928<ref name="Hadfield 96–112">{{Cite journal |last=Hadfield |first=Charles |date=November 1959 |title=The Grand Junction Canal |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002252665900400205 |journal=The Journal of Transport History |language=en |volume=fs-4 |issue=2 |pages=96–112 |doi=10.1177/002252665900400205 |issn=0022-5266}}</ref>
* '''Warwick and Birmingham Canal''' – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1928<ref name="Hadfield 96–112" />
* [[Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal]] – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1928<ref name="Hadfield 96–112" />
* [[Grand Junction Canal]] – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1928<ref name="Hadfield 96–112" />
;Leicester Line
* [[Grand Union Canal (old)|Old Grand Union Canal]] – bought by the Grand Junction in 1894
* [[Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal]] – bought by the Grand Junction in 1894
* [[River Soar|Leicester Navigation]] – bought by the Grand Union in 1932
* [[River Soar|Loughborough Navigation]] – bought by the Grand Union in 1932
* [[Erewash Canal]] – bought by the Grand Union in 1932

A five/mile (eight-km) section of the [[Oxford Canal]] forms the main line of the Grand Union between [[Braunston]] and [[Napton-on-the-Hill]].<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Vital Canal Link |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19310409/030/0006 |newspaper=Nottingham Evening Post |location=England |date=9 April 1931 |access-date=23 April 2024 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref>  Although the Grand Union intended to buy the Oxford Canal and [[Coventry Canal]], these purchases did not take place.

The section of the main line between [[Brentford]] and Braunston (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) was built as a 'wide' or 'broad' canal – that is, its locks were wide enough to accommodate two narrowboats abreast (side by side) or a single wide barge up to {{convert|14|ft|m}} in beam.

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Grand Union Canal Act 1931
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to empower the Grand Union Canal Company to execute works and improve part of their canal to confer powers upon that company with reference to part of the Oxford Canal Navigation and for other purposes.
| year                  = 1931
| citation              = [[21 & 22 Geo. 5]]. c. xc
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 31 July 1931
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Geo5/21-22/90/pdfs/ukla_19310090_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The onward sections from Braunston to Birmingham had been built as 'narrow' canals, that is, the locks could accommodate only a single [[narrowboat]]. The '''{{visible anchor|Grand Union Canal Act 1931}}''' ([[21 & 22 Geo. 5]]. c. xc) was passed authorising a key part of the modernisation scheme of the Grand Union, supported by government grants. The narrow locks (and several bridges) between Napton and [[Camp Hill Top Lock]] in Birmingham were rebuilt to take [[widebeam]] boats or barges up to {{convert|12|ft|6|in|m}} in beam, or two narrowboats. The canal was dredged and bank improvements carried out: the depth was increased to {{convert|5|ft|6|in|m}} to allow heavier cargoes, and the minimum width increased to {{convert|26|ft|m}} to enable two boats of 12 feet 6&nbsp;inches to pass. Lock works were completed in 1934 when the [[Duke of Kent]] opened the new broad locks at Hatton,<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Duke of Kent opens Warwick Canal Locks |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000337/19341030/018/0001 |newspaper=Coventry Evening Telegraph |location=England |date=30 October 1934 |access-date=23 April 2024 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription  }}</ref> and other improvements finished by 1937.

These improvements to depth and width were never carried out between Braunston and London. Camp Hill Locks in Birmingham were not widened, as it would have been very expensive and of little point, since they lead only to further flights of locks not in the ownership of the Grand Union. A new basin and warehouse were constructed at Tyseley, above [[Camp Hill, Birmingham|Camp Hill]], to deal with this. Although the Grand Union company had a number of broad boats built to take advantage of the improvements, they never really caught on and the canal continued to be operated largely by pairs of narrowboats, whose journeys were facilitated by the newly widened locks in which they could breast up.

The three sections between Norton junction and the [[River Trent]] (collectively known as the 'Leicester line') are mixed in size. From Norton to Foxton, the route is a narrow canal. From below Foxton to Leicester it is a wide canal. From [[Leicester]] to the Trent, the route is effectively the River Soar and the locks and bridges are wide. Another act of Parliament in 1931{{which|date=June 2023}} authorised the widening of the locks at [[Watford Locks]] and [[Foxton Locks]], but with government grants for this section not forthcoming, the work was not carried out.

The Grand Union Canal was nationalised in 1948, control transferring to the [[British Transport Commission]], and in 1962 to the British Waterways Board, later [[British Waterways]]. Commercial traffic continued to decline, effectively ceasing in the 1970s, though lime juice was carried from Brentford to Boxmoor until 1981, and aggregates on the River Soar until 1995. However, leisure traffic took over, and the canal is now as busy as it ever was, with leisure boating complemented by fishing, towpath walking and [[Gongoozler|gongoozling]]. More recently freight traffic returned with the carriage of aggregates from Denham to West Drayton in barges and narrowboats, and the opening of a new wharf for re-cyclables and aggregates at [[Old Oak Common]].