Pontcysyllte Aqueduct- how many spans?

[magpie patrick]

Pont Cysyllte is actually the name if the bridge nearby, which carries the old road over the Dee and connects Froncysyllte to Trevor, the big thing with water in it is Pont Cysyllte Aqueduct, Aqueduct translates to Pont  Dwr in Welsh  (literally water bridge) - as Aqueduct itself is obviously Latin anyone know the English for It? 

[Stilllearning]

I asked a welsh speaking contractor that I delivered stuff to how to pronounce Pontcysyllte, and he looked at the name in the map book and said “ooh, that’s tricky...” 

As I remember it, he said Pontycslthti. But he was from Ammanford in South Wales and they talk differently from the north.

[Derek R.]

3 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Pont Cysyllte is actually the name if the bridge nearby, which carries the old road over the Dee and connects Froncysyllte to Trevor, the big thing with water in it is Pont Cysyllte Aqueduct, Aqueduct translates to Pont  Dwr in Welsh  (literally water bridge) - as Aqueduct itself is obviously Latin anyone know the English for It? 

Pont is a bridge (generally speaking), and aqua is water, so water bridge would be a logical English description, but it's in Wales! Just how much influence did the Romans have in Britannia and Wales? The Celts were there before them.

 

Our langauage has evolved with many influences from mainland Europe, and some of the latter from Greek and civilisations even older. Aqueduct serves well, as water bridge may infer a bridge over water. Troubled?

[1st ade]

8 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Pont Cysyllte is actually the name if the bridge nearby, which carries the old road over the Dee and connects Froncysyllte to Trevor, the big thing with water in it is Pont Cysyllte Aqueduct, Aqueduct translates to Pont  Dwr in Welsh  (literally water bridge) - as Aqueduct itself is obviously Latin anyone know the English for It? 

So Pont Cysyllte Aqueduct is actually Pont Cysyllte Pont Dwr which is Water Bridge near Cysyllte Bridge; what's Cysyllte the Welsh for?

[magpie patrick]

It's a township name, somed say derived from Cyswllt meaning junction, others say that's twaddle. 

 

Froncysyllte means Cysyllte on the hill

 

So it could be water bridge of the bridge of the town at the junction on the hill.... or it could be that the Welsh are having a good laugh at me when they read this.  

[Derek R.]

Junction seems likely judging from the comments at the bottom of this website:

http://nbepiphany.co.uk/105-epiphanys-new-blog/wal/1892-fron-and-pont-but-what-is-the-cysyllte-bit

A joining place, a bridge across water?

[Heartland]

I wonder if Peter X has explored the Croydon Canal, at least looked at the Reservoir.

[Sea Dog]

I believe I once heard a song to help you remember how many spans there are.  It went something like:

 

Span, span span, span

Span, span, span, span

Lovely span, wonderful span...

 

Sung by a bunch of Vikings iirc.

[Heartland]

I bet there were Lumberjacks there too.

 

But then timber was an important traffic for both the Upper Severn and the Ellesmere Canal