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Stratford-on-Avon Canal was built between 1793 and 1816 and runs for 25.5 miles from the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Kings Norton to the River Avon at Stratford-upon-Avon. Kingswood junction and the connection to the Grand Union Canal splits the canal into a Northern and Southern section. Josiah Clowes was employed as the engineer and construction began in November 1793, starting at the Kings Norton end. Clowes was working on four other canals and died a year later. Money ran out at Hockley Heath in May 1796 one mile short of Lapworth top lock. Work restarted with Samuel Porter, Clowes assistant in 1799. Kingswood junction was reached in 1802 when work stopped for the second time. Construction started up again in 1812, this time under William James who later became chairman of the Canal Company. The canal reached Stratford in June 1816 at a total cost of £297,000. Following acquisition by a railway company in 1856, it gradually declined, the southern section being un-navigable by 1945. The Inland Waterways Association saved the northern section from closure in 1947 and the National Trust saved the southern section by restoring it from 1961 to 1964 with responsibility for it being transferred to British Waterways in 1988 along with the promise of £1.5m over the next 5 years from the Secretary of State to enable it to be brought up to standard. On the southern section interesting features of the canal include the unique barrel-roofed lock keeper's cottages to be found south of Kingswood Junction and many of the accommodation bridges south of the Junction are split bridges of cast iron, with a central slot to accommodate the tow rope of horse-drawn boats. Edstone, also known as Bearley aqueduct at 475 feet is the longest in England.