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The Birmingham Canal Navigations, affectionately called the B.C.N. form a fascinating hub of the country's canal system. It maybe a bit enthusiastic to call them 'the Venice of the Midlands', but it is true that most people do not realise how important the canal system was to the rise of the small village that was the original Birmingham, to the great worldwide trade and manufacturing centre that it became during the industrial revolution.
Birmingham is not  a part of the Black Country, although it drew much of its prosperity from there, the difference is most pronouced in dialect and habits.
The industrial eminence of Birmingham was built on the coal and iron of South Staffordshire, this is the area known as the Black Country, which had its own metal industries from the 16th cent. onwards. The coming of the canals in the 1760s revolutionised the whole of the Midlands, by enabling the manufacturers to bring in and send out their bulky and heavy cargoes at a fraction of the cost of packhorse carriage.
Indeed by the time the first railway penetrated the Midlands in 1852, the industrial revolution was over: the canals had been the agent and Bridley had been the prime architect of the canals of the Midalnds.
The meandering waterways we are left with are now used for our pleasure, this hub of navigations connects us to the Mersey in the north west, the Humber in the north east, via the Grand Union to London and the Thames, and by the Worcester and Birmingham to the River Severn thence to Bristol in the south west, truly a grand hub, far superior to anything that Venice can offer.

THE HUB OF THE CANAL SYSTEM
To the left of the picture to Worcester and all places south west, under the bridge to Wolverhampton and all places to the north east, the arm we are on takes you to Fazeley and the Coventry Canal and all destinations to the North east and London.