The Glamorganshire Canal

Everyone knows that we’ve got a stretch of the old canal running through the village, but how many of us know much more than that?

It took 4 years to build the Glamorganshire Canal. Starting in 1790, with an army of navigators with picks and shovels. The 25-mile-long canal had 50 locks and dropped 165m (about 500 feet) from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff. It even had an aqueduct over the River Taff at Abercynon!

It wasn’t the best construction, and in the early years there were many breaches and collapses, with squabbles between the builders, designers and the canal owners. The defects were mostly repaired and whilst more money had to be found, the canal was completed

Once resolved, the canal became an overnight success. Even though the canal company could by law only pay dividends of 8% (remember them?), they were making so much money that they reduced their barge tolls by 75% as well

Each of the 50 locks had a lock-keeper’s cottage, and with upwards of 200 barges on the canal, the lock-keepers were kept very busy. Each lock would have been opened and closed every 15 minutes or so, with traffic up and down stream. It must have been an incredible sight, and also very hard work for the lock-keeper (and his family)

Of the 50 locks, there were 3 locks in Whitchurch, 2 upstream in Tongwynlais (including a barge-weighing machine), and 3 downstream in Llandaff Yard

The barges were all of a standard design and were all horse-drawn. There were sections of canal which were widened to allow the barges to pass one another, and basins for barge turning. At Melingriffith there was a basin and a branch canal to allow barges to enter the works. At Tongwynlais and Llandaff Yard were wharves where barges could be maintained and repaired. The photograph below (courtesy of Stephen Rowson and his book Glamorganshire and Aberdare Canals: Vol 2) shows the lock and basin at Llandaff Yard adjacent to the Cow & Snuffers Pub. The Tivoli petrol station now stands where the single-storey buildings are in the photograph

Almost as soon as the canal opened around Whitchurch, Richard Blakemore of the Melingriffith Tinplate Works complained about water shortage to his works (no wonder with all the locks on the canal opening and closing so often!). The canal company paid for a water pump to be installed at the works to help alleviate the problem, but it took over 30 years to financially resolve the problem. The original water pump (which is a listed structure) has been restored and remains on Ty Mawr Road opposite Oak Cottage

With the opening of the railways in the 1840’s, the canal started to lose business, and began a slow decline. The Marquess of Bute acquired the canal business in 1885, And by 1898 closed the top section from Abercynon to Merthyr Tydfil. However, at the southern end, he built an extension in 1888 with a sea-lock to connect the canal to his shiny-new docks in Cardiff

The terminal decline however, continued, and the last barge travelled on the canal in 1942. Cardiff Council bought the canal in 1944 and wanted to close the whole thing, but some traders objected, so some limited trade continued. In December 1951, a sand-dredger crashed into the inner lock-gate at the dock end and all of the water drained out. The gate was never repaired, so the canal finally ceased!

Only 2 stretches of the canal remain, with water; a small section at Pontypridd (behind Sainsburys on the A470), and is well worth seeing, and the long stretch through Forest Farm that we all know and enjoy

When Cardiff Council acquired the canal in 1942, they explored the possibility of utilising the canal north of Cardiff as an amenity with sailing and boating through the countryside. There was never any money for this in the immediate post-war years and anyway, Whitchurch was outside the city boundaries. It never happened

What an opportunity missed. Imagine the canal restored, with the locks and cottages rebuilt

We’re fortunate that the remaining part of the canal and feeder are still being maintained by the conservationists and volunteers at Forest Farm

But what an opportunity there is for even a modest scheme of restoration and improvement to see our canal being used again. What a wonderful attraction that would be, with boats and barges nestled under the backdrop of Castell Coch. Perhaps for another day!

What do you think?

 

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