the route of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Junction Canal
map from: Canals of North Staffordshire

It was a 1 mile 1 furlong level canal linking to Sir Nigel Gresley's Canal - it was originally designed to link Gresley's canal to the canal to the Trent & Mersey but the final link (an inclined railway) was never completed.

Authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1798, abandoned c.1851 closed in 1864

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Junction Canal was proposed in 1789 as a third canal, one of its main promoters was Nigel Gresleys' son.

The route was planned to be a link canal from the Nigel Gresley Canal to the Newcastle Under Lyme Canal. At the southern end of the Junction Canal a railway inclined plane was planned because the Newcastle Under Lyme Canal was some 60 feet lower than the Junction Canal.

However, in the end the incline was not built due to lack of money, thus the Nigel Gresley Canal remained severed from the main inland network and the Junction Canal became no more than an extension of the Gresley Canal, bringing the route further into Newcastle.

Robert Malabar's 1847 Map of Newcastle-under-Lyme
top left of the map shows the junction between Sir Nigel Gresley's canal (light blue line) and the Junction Canal (dark blue line).
The purple line is Hempstalls Lane and the green box is what is now Station Walks.

the red box is Thompson's cotton mill on London Road and the brown circle is the Brampton Silk Mill on Hempstalls Lane
 

The Junction Canal began a hundred yards or so north of the Nigel Gresley Canal's southern terminus on Liverpool Road (A34). From the junction it headed south east and immediately passed under Liverpool Road, on the east side of the road the canal curved southwards.

In 1971 Ronald Russell located a stretch of the canal bed near the crossroads of the A34 and what was then the B5068. To the south of this crossroads (on the east side of Liverpool Road) is Mayer Avenue which leads to St. Michael's Infants School. A path beside the school leads/led about 100 yards to the former Junction Canal. All that remained in 1971 was a depression between two raised banks. This depression was once the canal line, it stretched for about 400 yards running through rough land surrounded by houses.

A current Newcastle Town Plan shows Brampton Industrial Estate in the area close to where the canal ran. Enderley Road probably passes over the route and somewhere close to here the canal curved south east again. Broad Street may have been close to the canal and possibly ran parallel to it. Streets running north/south (such as Florence Street and Cherry Orchard) probably crossed the canal.

After being crossed by Queen Street (A527) the route curved south again and was crossed by King Street (A53). Just south of here is Brunswick Street (A52), in 1971 Ronald Russell found "traces" of the canal close to this road. He also found traces of the route along Station Walks.

The canal continued south right into the town centre, presumably fairly close and parallel to North Street while Hassell Street crossed its path. What was once the southern end of the canal is now Stubbs Walks (close to Victoria Road) and the site of the proposed railway inclined plane is now Occupation Street, heading down south westwards towards London Road (A34).