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Bridge 77 to Bridge 78
In June 1785 Thomas Sheasby was awarded the contract to connect the Coventry Canal to the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Although the canal reached the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Fazeley, the final Parliament-approved stretch to the Trent and Mersey at Fradley was not finished until 1789.
The Trent and Mersey company, and the Birmingham and Fazeley company, anxious to allow through traffic between Birmingham and the Trent and Mersey Canal, gained permission to complete and operate the approved but unbuilt section from Fazeley to Fradley. The Birmingham and Fazeley worked north from Fazeley, and the Trent and Mersey worked south from Fradley. The full length from Coventry to Fradley was opened in 1789.
The Coventry Canal company later bought the northern section, nowadays sometimes referred to as Coventry Canal (detached portion), while the middle section remained under the ownership of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, and thus some maps show this middle section as the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, but others describe the complete route as the Coventry Canal. The Canal and River Trust who manage the canal describe the whole route from Coventry to the Trent and Mersey Canal as the Coventry Canal.
The Coventry Canal bridge numberings do not resume until the Coventry Canal (detached portion) is reached at Whittington.