June 2025 The Canals of Wales

[QuentinDeakin]

At their June meeting Dr Tony Lyons gave a comprehensive talk on the canals of Wales and their close connection to those of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Midlands. That network started thanks to the enterprising genius of Francis Egerton, the Third Duke of Bridgwater, who in 1761 opened the first navigable canal in Britain, linking his coal mine at Worsley to Manchester. Working with brilliant civil engineers William Jessop and Thomas Dodford, who mastered the technique of sealing by puddling, tunnelling, lock flights and embankments, such techniques were applied elsewhere as the network spread into the west Midlands. In Wales, Dodford developed two canals, the Monmouthshire and the Brecknock/Abergavenny. In north Wales, what is today known as the Llangollen canal, is actually a remnant of a larger planned network linking to the West Midlands. The famous civil engineer Thomas Telford designed the Pontcysyllte and Chirk canal aqueducts, using an iron trough to carry the water that supplied the canal. This was its main purpose, not navigation, though it also moved agricultural produce for sale in England. Dr Lyons emphasised the vital importance of the canals to the success of the Industrial Revolution, with new engineering techniques and connections, assisting development of the faster railway network and the growth of the great industrial cities and towns of Manchester, Stoke, Port Talbot and Cardiff. In the questions that followed, the attraction of the fine aqueducts at Pontcysyllte and Chirk for visitors and members' experience of legging through tunnels, simulated and real, led to much discussion.

Tony was thanked for his fascinating talk, bringing so many aspects of canal history together and reminding us here in west Wales of the importance of canals to British history, including the south and east of Wales.