Pen- Clawdd Canal

[Heartland]

The quoted early abandonment does need further comment as the route of the canal and tramroads are shown on the early Ordnance Survey published about 1828. Linking with the canal was the tramroad that went by Waunarllwydd to coal pits at Mynydd-y-Glo.

 

This canal was placed at the western end of Glamorgan and there were several other waterways that connected with the coast. on the Carmarthenshire shore Craft could navigate the estuaries to places like Carmarthen  (Towy) and  St Clear (Taff).

 

The canals were often short and included

1 Kidwelly & Llanelly 

2 Earl of Ashburnham's (2)

3 Pembrey (3)

4 Vauxhall (4)

5 Wern (5)

6 Pen-y-fan (6)

7 Hopkins (7)

8 General Ward's canals 

 

 

 

 

 

[Heartland]

The canal is also shown on the Tithe Map for Loughor - and tithe maps date from the 1840's. By 1860 a deposited plan for the Pen-clawdd branch railway shows the canal bed dry and a tramway laid to Berrington Colliery beside it.

 

The are several accounts that mention the short life of this waterway, which is indicative of the fact that authors often copy items without checking detail.

 

The continued use of the canal later than suggested, may be down to traffic related to the paper mill to which a tramway was laid, or there may have been traffic in lime for agricultural use, or there might have been factors yet to be uncovered.

 

 

[Dyertribe]

The mill ceased to be a paper mill in the 1830s. It was converted to a corn mill and later the site was converted to tinplate and chemical production in 1888. 

There remains some evidence of the original mill and is designated as an ancient monument.

There were 4 locks on the canal, one of which was converted to an air raid shelter. There is still a small part of the canal remaining in Gowerton but it is fenced off for safety.

There remains a Canal bridge which I cross most days!

[Athy]

That's an imaginative - and surely unique - use for an old lock.

[Heartland]

Yes the Cofflein website records the following

 

Site Description Gowerton Lock is one of four locks on the Penclawdd Canal. It was converted into an air-raid shelter during World War II. The entrance is underneath a lock-tail bridge that stands on waste ground. The dimensions of the lock suggest that Penclawdd Canal boats were about the size of conventional narrow-boats.

 

 

[Pluto]

2 hours ago, Athy said:

That's an imaginative - and surely unique - use for an old lock.

Underground sections of the Manchester & Salford Junction Canal were also used as air raid shelters, though the canal tunnel was used, rather than just the lock chamber.

[Dyertribe]

3 hours ago, Athy said:

That's an imaginative - and surely unique - use for an old lock.

Surprisingly my dad never mentioned that, he was born and brought up in Gowerton and would have been 16 at the outbreak of WW2, perhaps it wasn’t used until later in the war by which time he had been conscripted. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Dyertribe

[Chris Lowe]

I found the welsh Tithe maps most useful when plotting the course of this for my canal map, I wanted to have a look for remains when I was in the area earlier in the year but finding parking was a pain.

The is a book about the canal available online but it's not very good.

[magpie patrick]

On 22/12/2019 at 10:50, Heartland said:

The quoted early abandonment does need further comment as the route of the canal and tramroads are shown on the early Ordnance Survey published about 1828. Linking with the canal was the tramroad that went by Waunarllwydd to coal pits at Mynydd-y-Glo.

 

This canal was placed at the western end of Glamorgan and there were several other waterways that connected with the coast. on the Carmarthenshire shore Craft could navigate the estuaries to places like Carmarthen  (Towy) and  St Clear (Taff).

 

 

 

Many canals and river navigations were disused earlier than 1836, but going back to your original (and still unchallenged) claim in the Croydon Canal thread - that the Croydon canal was the first to be abandoned. Abandonment has a different meaning, in my line of work a building or site can be disused without being abandoned, and in the 1970's there was a landmark case that a dwelling house, long disused and ruinous, had not been abandoned because the owner had always intended to return. With canals, abandonment was usually a legal process that allowed the owners to discard their responsibilities, many of which wouldn't relate to navigation.

 

I haven't had chance to check anything other than secondary sources (Hadfield's regional histories) but the Croydon does have a date of abandonment of 1836. The Pen-Clawdd Canal simply appears to have stopped operating and Hadfield notes "No meeting of the company seems to have taken place after 1818." The Llanelly Railway and Dock Company (New Lines) Act of 1861 gave power to enter upon land mentioned in the Pen-Clawdd Canal Act of 1811 for "works which have never been completed or used" - in other words the Railway Company got their facts wrong and in doing so assumed de-facto abandonment.

 

A number of these small west wales waterways never had enabling acts and thus were never abandoned - they are a fascinating sideline of canal history though, and when I lived that way I much enjoyed searching out the remains of them.

 

For the Croydon, the challenge is to find a canal that was legally abandonded before 1836, I'll keep looking

Edited December 24, 2019 by magpie patrick

[Chris Lowe]

I have the Pen Clawdd mapped like this.

 

 

[Dyertribe]

Well we need a banter to sort this one out! 
only one of those bridges is still in. Evidence today as far as I know, I am happy to be corrected. 

[Graham Davis]

52 minutes ago, buccaneer66 said:

I have the Pen Clawdd mapped like this.

All done for you on this site:
http://www.railmaponline.com/Canals.php#

10 minutes ago, Dyertribe said:

Well we need a banter to sort this one out! 
only one of those bridges is still in. Evidence today as far as I know, I am happy to be corrected. 

Plenty of decent pubs to meet at!!

[Chris Lowe]

Graham

Canalmaponline is me, I do the canal maps and the site owner Matthew does the railway maps, but comments are always welcome to keep the map as accurate as possible.

 

I had a few back and forth messages with the RCHS when I mapped this one.

Edited December 24, 2019 by buccaneer66

[Graham Davis]

1 hour ago, buccaneer66 said:

Graham

Canalmaponline is me, I do the canal maps and the site owner Matthew does the railway maps, but comments are always welcome to keep the map as accurate as possible.

 

I had a few back and forth messages with the RCHS when I mapped this one.

Sorry, didn't realise that. It is a great resourse, thank you.

[Heartland]

Thanks Patrick, but regarding the Croydon Canal, my point exactly was the legal aspect. At present I also cannot think of an earlier example. But there may be examples of part canal abandonment. Perhaps you can explain the legal situation at Radstock on the Coal Canal?

 

With regards to this subject, the Pen-clawdd Canal was stated to have four locks., although it is only possible  to find the two near Gowerton on the old o/s map. A third lock may have been  planned at the sea dock, but on construction was not the case. As the canal was to be longer, may be the other locks on the uncompleted section.

 

The subject was discussed in the RCHS Waterways History Group notes and queries 29.23.   

 

There is a new book published in 2018, with John Thomas as Author that is called the Rise and Fall of the Pen clawdd Canal and Railway or Tramroad Company 1811- 1865, which I have yet to seen a copy of. The date of 1865 is of relevance to the Croydon thread.

Edited December 25, 2019 by Heartland

[Chris Lowe]

I have a copy of that book, and it isn't particularly good.

I did raise a query about the route with the RCHS waterway history group, but I  can't remember what number it was given.

[Heartland]

So is it Chris,

 

Yes I picked up on the query and posted a couple of replies. There is clearly still questions to be answered.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Heartland

[Chris Lowe]

13 hours ago, Heartland said:

So is it Chris,

 

Yes I picked up on the query and posted a couple of replies. There is clearly still questions to be answered.

 

 

Yes it's Chris

 

If you want to borrow the Pen-Clawdd book I can send it, as it really isn't worth buying.

[Heartland]

Oh dear.

 

It is possible to get extracts on Google 

Thanks, but it seems that a better attempt is made.