Negotiations eventually led to the provision of two culverts, one paid for by the Trust and the other by the road builders, which will be used in due course for the route of the re-aligned canal.

In 2006, the engineers Arup produced a feasibility study for a replacement route for the destroyed section which would link to Grove Basin on the Cannock Extension Canal.

Environmental concerns led to a second feasibility study being produced by Atkins in 2009, for a route which connected to the derelict Lord Hayes Branch on the Wyrley and Essington Canal.

A short section near the junction with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is navigable, and the cost of restoring the rest and building the new route to the Wyrley and Essington was estimated at £44.1 million in 2009.

Negotiations were completed by 4 April 1839, at which point the company accepted an estimate of £12,345 from Robert Frost, and construction began.

An agreement was reached in 1854 to construct a flight of thirteen locks between the Hatherton Branch and the Cannock Extension Canal at Churchbridge.

[9] After closure, the first half mile at the western end adjoining Hatherton Junction was bought by Ernie Thomas.

This section of canal was subsequently taken over by Phil Jones, owner of the Hatherton Marina boatyard, who continued to use the second lock as a dry dock.

[11] Further threats to the route from the proposed Birmingham Northern Relief Road led to the formation of the Ogley and Hatherton Restoration Society in 1989, after the Inland Waterways Association held a rally at Pelsall to highlight the plight of the canal.

As a result of a feasibility study, carried out between 2004 and 2006 by the consulting engineers Arup at the request of British Waterways, the proposed new route for the Churchbridge bypass would have run through new locks to a new junction at Grove Basin on the Cannock Extension Canal.

However, this route proved to be unacceptable for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Cannock Extension Canal is a designated Special Area of Conservation, because it is colonised by a rare variety of floating water plantain.

A second feasibility study, completed by Atkins in 2009, has now identified a route which would join the Wyrley and Essington Canal via the former Lord Hayes Branch instead.

[14] This route would help satisfy environmental concerns, be preferable to local landowners, and reduce the number of new road bridges needed.

[15] Atkins estimated that the cost of rebuilding the canal, including construction of the new section to Lord Hayes Branch, would be £44.1 million.

There is a large marina on its north side, close to the junction,[16] after which a bridge carries a minor road over the canal, before it enters the first lock.

Beyond the motorway, Scrawpers End Bridge carries Oak Lane over the canal, but it has been lowered, leaving around 4 feet (1.2 m) of headroom.

[19] A weir on Saredon Brook supplies more water to the channel before it enters Meadow Lock, the structure of which is largely intact, although it suffered from subsidence before the canal closed.

Trust volunteers have cleared the towpath above the lock, enabling walkers to reach a bridge located behind the Roman Way Hotel.

Considerable work has been carried out on constructing an access ramp to the towpath and restoring the bridge, which often forms the backdrop to wedding photographs taken in the hotel grounds.

Just beyond the bridge, another stream supplies water, but the canal bed is no longer owned by British Waterways after that point, and has been filled in.

[21] The land surface where the Churchbridge locks were located was stripped away by open cast mining in the 1950s, and the route of the canal has been obliterated.

[8] Staffordshire County Council owns some land between the A5 road and the M6 Toll motorway, which has been identified as a suitable route for a new section of canal.

[22] From Churchbridge, the proposed new route follows the line of the A5, on County Council land, before turning to the south near the location of the northbound tollbooths on the motorway.

It then follows the valley of the Wash Brook for around 1.9 miles (3.1 km), before a 1,000-yard (900 m) section which climbs to join the infilled Lord Hayes Branch about 330 yards (300 m) from its junction with the Wyrley and Essington Canal.