The Swansea Canal: Navigating the history of an industrial artery

In 1789, an opinion column in The Times hailed Britain’s canal-building achievements as a matter of national pride – contrasting them with the revolutionary turmoil in France. Aristocrats and entrepreneurs were losing their heads across the Channel, while in Britain they were busy building and funding a canal network that would serve the rapid growth of the nation as an industrial power. In his new book on the Swansea Canal, Stephen Hughes looks in detail at the archaeology and history of one such pioneering enterprise, as Chris Catling reports.

Built between 1794 and 1798, the Swansea Canal is relatively short: just 16.5 miles (26.6km) from its start at Abercrâf, in the Upper Swansea Valley (also known as the Tawe Valley), to the harbour at Swansea (Abertawe in Welsh, meaning ‘Estuary of the Tawe’). Five aqueducts carry the canal across major tributaries of the River Tawe, at Clydach, Pontardawe, Ynysmeudwy, Ystalyfera, and Cwmgiedd, and there are 36 locks along the canal’s length, raising it through 373ft (114m) from near sea level at Swansea to the summit at Abercrâf.

Five aqueducts carry the Swansea Canal across major tributaries of the River Tawe. This is the now-dry Twrch Aqueduct, showing the thick double-sided walls once used to retain its water. Photo: RCAHMW Crown Copyright (Fred Davies Collection)

The last time the canal was used to carry commercial traffic was in 1931, and the last record of any boat using the canal was at Clydach in 1958. Much of the canal was subsequently filled in, partly to accommodate new roads. Today the canal is owned by the Canal and River Trust, which works in partnership with the Swansea Canal Society, a charity formed in 1981 with the aim of restoring the canal ‘as a community asset for active recreation and as a heritage visitor destination’. Nature has reclaimed many parts of the canal, which provides a habitat for eels and waterbirds, so the restoration plans have been designed to protect its wildlife and improve its physical environment (for example, by dredging to remove the Japanese knotweed that grows extensively around the Swansea Valley).

The story of the canal is the subject of a new volume written by industrial archaeologist Stephen Hughes to commemorate its 225-year history (see ‘Further reading’ on p.26). In his introductory chapter, Stephen explains the long history of canal- and railway-building that preceded the construction of the Swansea Canal. There is nothing new in the idea of an artificial watercourse: examples survive from ancient Egypt, China, and the Roman Empire, as well as medieval Europe – the imported stone that was used to build some of the UK’s finest abbeys, castles, and cathedrals arrived by means of canals. Long-distance watercourses were built all over the UK as leets designed to power mills, either directly or by feeding ponds that were used to drive wheels and machinery.

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