Geograph - photograph every grid square

The Grand Union Canal was formed from an amalgamation of several formerly separate canals. Until the 1920s these had been independently owned and operated. The original part of the system was the Grand Junction Canal between Braunston and Brentford, constructed to reduce the route from the Midlands to London by sixty miles. This had locks fourteen feet wide, many branches to major towns and broad beam boats carrying up to seventy tons. Earlier linking canals were built with seven foot wide locks.

The Regent's Canal acquired the Grand Junction and other canals in 1929 and created the new Grand Union Canal Carrying Company (GUCCC). In 1932, with government aid, extensive modernisation was carried out, including the widening of 52 locks between Braunston and Birmingham (Camp Hill), and the demolition and replacement of many 18th and early 19th century bridges; then the money ran out - and the World War II started, so the task was never completed.

Waterways absorbed into the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company include:

London area:

Regent's Canal – original company
Hertford Union Canal – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1857

Main Line*:

Warwick and Napton Canal – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1927
Warwick and Birmingham Canal – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1927
Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1927
Grand Junction Canal – bought by the Regent's Canal in 1927

Leicester Line:

Old Grand Union Canal – bought by the Grand Junction in 1894
Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal – bought by the Grand Junction in 1894
Leicester Navigation – bought by the Grand Union in 1932
Loughborough Navigation – bought by the Grand Union in 1932
Erewash Canal – bought by the Grand Union in 1932

*The current main line starts in London and ends in Birmingham (Digbeth), stretching for 137 miles (220 km) with 166 locks.

For more details, a good start is: Link

The Wendover Arm was planned as a feeder to supply water to the Tring Summit of the Grand Junction Canal (now the Grand Union Canal). It was completed as a navigable canal in 1797 and operated as such throughout the 19th century. However the canal leaked water and was closed early in the 20th century, and the water was piped into the reservoirs at Tring. As a result the route of the canal currently splits into three sections:
From Wendover to Drayton Beauchamp (via Halton and Buckland Wharf) the old canal channel carries what is, in environmental terms, a very healthy chalk stream. Because of the minimal human disturbance it supports a wide range of animal and plant species.
Between Drayton Beauchamp and Little Tring the canal channel is currently being relined so that it can be re-watered – allowing canal boats to travel to Buckland Wharf, where low road bridges currently prevent further progress. This work is being carried out by the Wendover Arm Trust Link
Between Little Tring and the Tring Summit of the Grand Union Canal the canal is fully navigable, and a short section has recently been reopened to provide a winding hole. This section gives great pleasure to those who travel in barges but is environmentally far less interesting than the Wendover end because passing barges stir up the mud.