The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal was authorised in 1793, to ensure that the prosperity being generated by new canal routes would not bypass Stratford. Construction began at Kings Norton Junction, less than from Selly Oak Junction, where the Worcester and Birmingham met with the Dudley Canal No. 2 line which passed through the Lapal Tunnel. This route would give easy access to the Dudley coalfields. After the first three years, progress was slow due to a lack of capital, and it was not until the canal reached Kingswood Junction at Lapworth in 1803, where there was a link to the Warwick and Birmingham Canal (later part of the Grand Union Canal), that large volumes of traffic used the canal and Kings Norton Junction. The final section from Lapworth to Stratford was built between 1812 and 1815.
