The Bentley Canal is an abandoned canal that was part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. A very short section still exists where it joins the Wyrley and Essington Canal in Wolverhampton. From there it headed generally southeast through Willenhall and Walsall and connected with the Anson Branch and thus the Walsall Canal. The main line opened in 1843, with the Neachell Hall Branch following two years later. The branch closed in 1953 and the main line in the early 1960s. History In 1820, the Birmingham Canal Company had approached the Wyrley and Essington Canal, with a view to amalgamation. This had been declined, but from 1825 mineowners in the Walsall area petitioned for a junction between the two systems. Nothing happened for some years, but in 1837, Walsall Town Council began pushing both companies for a solution. After much disagreement, the Wyrley and Essington announced that they were ready to apply for an Act of Parliament to authorise the construction of a junction at Walsall, which led to the Birmingham Canal Company agreeing to amalgamation. Both signed an agreement to proceed on 9 February 1840, and an Act of Parliament was obtained to April to authorise the move. The Bentley Canal was one of three links between the systems built shortly afterwards. The other two were the Walsall Junction Canal, which linked the north end of the Walsall Canal to Birchills Junction, and the Rushall Canal, between the Tame Valley Canal and the Daw End Branch of the Wyrley and Essington. In 1828, the Company completed a branch to Ridgeacre at huge cost, and accepted an estimate for the Bentley Branch of £7,135, but they were in the middle of a much bigger enterprise, to lower the level of their main summit, and no further action appears to have been taken concerning the Bentley Branch. In 1839, work on the Tame Valley Canal began, under the direction of Messrs Walker and Burgess, who were the engineers. James Walker suggested that it should be built following a different line to that specified in the Act of Parliament, and the committee approved his revised plans. When there was opposition to the new line from landowners, the committee agreed to revert to the original line, but Walker was infuriated, and wrote a long letter to them. They reconsidered, and agreed to proceed with Walker's new line, for which they obtained a new Act