The canal company later secured a further Act that enabled them to extend the line to Brownhills and then descend through 30 locks to Huddlesford on the Coventry Canal, plus the Daw End Branch to the Hay Head Limeworks and a short branch to Lord Hay's quarries.
Major traffic on the Wyrley & Essington was coal from the Cannock pits. Boats were gauged for toll purposes at a number of narrows formed by islands in the canal, several of which had characteristic octagonal toll offices.
Mining subsidence
Although built as a contour canal, in which the line followed the contours of the land, the Wyrley & Essington has been badly affected by subsidence occurring in the mines it was built to serve, and continual repairs have led to some sections now running on high embankments. Water supply was also a perennial problem.
The Bentley Canal linked the Wyrley & Essington with the Walsall Canal via the Anson Branch. One of the last major branches of the BCN to be lost, it was abandoned by the 1960s. Its junction with the Wyrley & Essington is now denoted by a modern pub and retail development.
