The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal () is a small network of canals in South Wales. For most of its currently (2018) navigable length it runs through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and its present rural character and tranquillity belies its original purpose as an industrial corridor for coal and iron, which were brought to the canal by a network of tramways and/or railroads, many of which were built and owned by the canal company.
The "Mon and Brec" was originally two independent canals – the Monmouthshire Canal from Newport to Pontymoile Basin (including the Crumlin Arm) and the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal running from Pontymoile to Brecon. Both canals were abandoned in 1962, but the Brecknock and Abergavenny route and a small section of the Monmouthshire route have been reopened since 1970. Much of the rest of the original Monmouthshire Canal is the subject of a restoration plan, which includes the construction of a new marina at the Newport end of the canal.
The Monmouthshire Canal
This canal was authorised by an act of Parliament, the (32 Geo. 3. c. 102), passed on 11 June 1792, which created the Company of Proprietors of the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation and empowered it to raise £120,000 by the issuing of shares, and a further £60,000 if required. The act stated that the canal would run from Pontnewynydd to the River Usk near Newport, and would include a branch from Crindau to Crumlin Bridge. The company also had powers to construct railways from the canal to any coal mines, ironworks or limestone quarries which were within of it.
Construction of the canal was supervised by Thomas Dadford Jr., and further acts of Parliament were obtained as the work progressed. An act of 4 July 1797, the (37 Geo. 3. c. 100), gave the company powers to extend the navigation, which resulted in the Newport terminus being moved southwards to Potter Street, while a third act of 26 June 1802, the (42 Geo. 3. c. cxv), authorised specific railways, and allowed the company to raise additional finance.
The main line, which opened in February 1796, was long, and ran from Newport to Pontnewynydd, via Pontymoile, rising by through 42 locks. The Crumlin Arm left the main line at Crindau, rising through 32 locks to Crumlin (including the Cefn flight of Fourteen Locks), and was opened in 1799. In the late 1840s, a short extension joined the canal to Newport Docks, and hence to the River Usk. Because the canal was isolated from other similar undertakings, Dadford was free to set the size of the locks, and they were designed to take boats with a maximum width of , a length of and a draught of .
On the main line, railway branches were constructed from near Pontypool to Blaen-Din Works and Trosnant Furnace. From Crumlin a railway was built to Beaufort Iron Works, which was long and rose by , and there were additional branches to Sorwy Furnace, Nantyglo Works, and the Sirhowy Railway at Risca.
The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal
This canal was first proposed in 1792 as a separate venture, to link Brecon to the River Usk near Caerleon. The Monmouthshire proprietors invited their potential competitors to alter the plans to create a junction with the Monmouthshire Canal at Pontymoile near Pontypool and share the navigation from there to Newport. An act of Parliament, the (33 Geo. 3. c. 96), was passed on 28 March 1793, allowing the newly formed canal company to raise £100,000 in shares, with an additional £50,000 if required, and to construct railways to link the canal to mines, quarries and iron works.
Initially work concentrated on the railways, with John Dadford overseeing the construction of lines from the collieries at Gellifelen to Llangrwyney Forge, and on to the Abergavenny to Brecon turnpike road. The line was opened in 1794, and later served the canal at Gilwern. It was not until 1795 that Thomas Dadford was appointed as the engineer for the canal itself and construction began in earnest at Penpedairheol near Crickhowell. Work began in 1796 and by late 1797, the canal was open from Gilwern to Llangynidr in Brecknockshire and much of the rest was in hand. However costs, as usual, were higher than expected and, in 1799 Dadford stated that further money was needed to complete the section from Clydach to Brecon. Benjamin Outram was called in to inspect the work and to advise on substituting a railway between Gilwern and Pont-y-Moel. Outram recommended several improvements, in particular the partial rebuilding of the Ashford Tunnel. He was also somewhat critical of the existing railways.
The canal was completed and opened to Talybont-on-Usk in late 1799 and through to Brecon in December 1800. Dadford died in 1801, and was replaced as engineer by Thomas Cartwright. The canal company obtained another act of Parliament, the (44 Geo. 3. c. xxix), on 3 May 1804, to authorise the raising of more capital, and the section to Govilon, near Abergavenny was completed in 1805, but the company failed to raise the finance authorised by the 1804 act, and so construction stopped. The company then concentrated on running the canal and railways so far opened, and was running 20 boats by 1806, carrying coal and limestone as their main cargoes.
By 1809 the Monmouthshire Canal was threatening litigation over the uncompleted connection from Gilwern. Help came from Richard Crawshay, the Merthyr Tydfil ironmaster and a major force on the Glamorganshire Canal, who provided a loan of £30,000. This sum enabled the canal company to appoint William Crosley to complete the work, which opened in February 1812.
From the Pontymoile junction, the Brecknock and Abergavenny runs through Llanfoist near Abergavenny and Talybont, ending at a basin in Brecon. The canal is long and is level for the first to Llangynidr, where there are five locks. below Brecon, the canal crosses the River Usk on an aqueduct at Brynich, and a final lock brings the total rise to . The River Usk provides the main water supply for the canal. A weir near the Brecon Promenade controls the water levels on the river, and of underground culvert brings water through the town to the Theatre Basin. Additional water is taken from a number of streams, where part of the flow is diverted into the canal and the rest flows under an aqueduct to reach the River Usk.
The tramroads
The Welsh canals were in the main constructed along narrow valleys, where the terrain prevented the easy construction of branches to serve the industries which were located along their routes, but they had the advantage that their enabling acts of Parliament allowed tramways to be constructed, the land for which could be obtained by compulsory purchase, as if the tramway was part of the canal itself. This led to the development of an extensive network of tramways, to serve the many coal and ironstone mines which developed in the area. Dadford was an exponent of "edge rails", where flanged wheels ran on bar section rails, similar to modern railway practice, rather than wheels with no flanges running on L-shaped tram-plates.
Following Dadford's demise, Benjamin Outram was consulted on a number of matters, and recommended that the railways should be converted from edge rails to tram plates. Many of them were converted in this way, but this alteration was not always successful, with users of the Crumlin Bridge to Beaufort Ironworks tramway complaining in 1802 that they had incurred considerable cost to make the transition, only to find that the new tramway was unusable due to poor construction. In 1806, the loaded weights of wagons were reduced, in an attempt to reduce the number of broken tramplates. Ultimately, many of the tramways were converted to standard gauge railways, and so reverted to the flanged wheel system.
The canal acts obtained by the Monmouthshire Canal Company authorised tramways to Aberbeeg, Beaufort, Ebbw Vale, Blaenavon, Blaendare, Nantyglo, Sirhowy and Trosnant. In some cases, these were named specifically because they were longer than and were not therefore covered by the general provisions of the original act. At least 21 tramways are known to have connected to the Monmouthshire Canal, with a further 13 connecting to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal. Some works were eventually connected to both canals. The Beaufort Ironworks was originally connected to Crumlin Bridge by the Ebbw Vale tramway, but the incentives for through trade which the Monmouthshire Canal Company had offered to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Company meant that carriage was cheaper if the goods originated on the northern canal, and so a second tramway was constructed along the heads of the valleys to Gilwern.
Llanhiledd Tramroad
In 1798, the canal company agreed with Sir Richard Salusbury to build a line connecting his collieries to the head of the canal at Crumlin and Llanhilleth. It was not until 1800, however, that Outram was asked to survey the line. The twin track tramway connected by means of an inclined plane to the existing line from the Beaufort Ironworks. Outram's designs were not followed to the letter, probably to save costs, and he expressed his dismay at this.
Monmouthshire Canal Tramway
In 1800, the owners of Sirhowy Ironworks were granted permission to exploit the minerals under Bedwellty Common and build a tramroad to join the canal, with the erection of a works (which was later Tredegar Ironworks).
The Monmouthshire Canal Navigation Act 1802 (42 Geo. 3. c. cxv) sanctioned the construction of tramroads to places within of the canal, and they therefore built of tramroad from Newport to a point near Wattsville and Cwmfelinfach. The Sirhowy Tramroad from the Sirhowy Ironworks was built by the ironmasters, to a point from the canal company section. The mile between crossed the land of Sir Charles Morgan, Baron Tredegar of Tredegar House, who agreed to build the connection across Tredegar Park, in return for tolls for goods crossing his land. This section became known as the "golden mile", because it proved to be quite lucrative for Sir Charles.
The tramroad was constructed between 1802 and 1805 or 1806. Branches would be built to the limestone quarries at Trefil (the Trefil Tramroad) and to the Union Ironworks at Rhymney. Two more branches, from Llanarth and Penllwyn to Nine Mile Point Colliery were added in 1824. A major feature of the line was the 'Long Bridge' at Risca, long with 33 arches each of span averaging high. The bridge was abandoned in 1853, to eliminate the sharp curves at either end, when part of the line was converted to standard gauge, and was demolished in 1905. Conversion of the whole line to standard gauge was completed in 1863, and the Sirhowy Tramroad became the Sirhowy Railway Company in 1865.
Hay Railway The Hay Railway received authorisation in an act of Parliament, the Hay Railway Act 1811 (51 Geo. 3. c. cxxii), on 25 May 1811. Construction of its winding 24-mile long route took nearly five years and the line was opened on 7 May 1816. The tramway was built to a gauge of . The railway adopted the use of cast-iron L-shaped tramroad plates in its construction. The vertical portions of the two plates were positioned inside the wheels of the tramway wagons and the plates were spiked to stone blocks for stability. The size of the stones, and their spacing, was such that the horses could operate unimpeded. From 1 May 1820, the Hay Railway was joined at its Eardisley terminus, in an end on junction, by the Kington Tramway. Together, the two lines totalled 36 miles in length, comprising the longest continuous plateway to be completed in the United Kingdom.
The Hay Railway operated through rural areas on the borders of England and Wales and was built to transport goods and freight. Passengers were not carried on any official basis. The Hay Railway was absorbed into the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in 1860 and the line was converted to standard gaugeBaughan 1980, page 205 for operation by steam locomotives.
Decline and re-opening