Transport

For centuries Carmarthen and Kidwelly had been the two most important shipping places in Carmarthen Bay. Between 1766 and 1768 the first major canal built in Wales was constructed by Thomas Kymer and for over 30 years, coal was transported along this waterway to Kidwelly Harbour. By the beginning of the 19th century Kidwelly Harbour fell into decline, mainly because of river and harbour silting and diminishing coal supplies.

Ashburnham Canal – 1796

Before the Ashburnham Canal was cut, coal was carried by packhorse from the Pinged area to the Gwendraeth Fawr river estuary, where it was loaded on to waiting vessels. In 1796 the Ashburnham Canal was cut which led to the demise of the packhorse as the main mode of transport. By 1818 the canal closed because of a reduction in the supply of coal.

Pembrey Canal – 1816

Around 1816 permission was given to cut canals to export coal mined in the Gwendraeth Valley and coal was transported along the new canal to a harbour in the middle of low sandbanks on the Pembrey foreshore. Pembrey harbour was opened in 1819 but it was soon obvious that it was too small to cope with the increased volume of traffic generated by the increasing demand for coal.

Kidwelly to Llanelly Canal – 1837

A company was formed to build a harbour at Tywyn Bach (Burry Port) and the New Pembrey Harbour, about half a mile eastwards of the Old Harbour, was opened in 1832. In 1837 the last part of the Kidwelly to Llanelly Canal was completed, and it ran from Kidwelly to Tywyn Bach. Although it was originally planned to end at Llanelly, the canal actually terminated at the New Harbour Pembrey, bypassing the Old Pembrey Harbour. About 11 miles long, the canal was far superior to all the other canals in the Pembrey parish. Minerals and goods were transported along the canal in horse-drawn barges. From 1837 until it was replaced by the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway in 1869 it carried nearly all the anthracite coal mined in the Gwendraeth Valley to be shipped from Burry Port.

Explosive Company’s Channel – 1882

In 1882 an Explosive Company announced they had succeeded in cutting a channel 80 yards wide from the harbour out to the Burry River which the Company claimed ‘was capable of taking in the largest vessel that can cross the Burry Bar.’ During the next four years many vessels berthed there until the Pembrey Explosive Company ceased trading in 1885.

Canals

John Innes Old Llanelly 1902

According to John Innes in Old Llanelly canals were much used for the distribution of merchandise inland. There was a short one from the Forge to Carmarthenshire Dock; another at the Wern. Kymer’s Canal at Kidwelly was amongst the first in Wales, and tapped the Trimsaran coal.

An old canal may yet be traced south of the GWR from Kidwelly to Pembrey Old Harbour. There were plans to extend this on to Llanelly, but this was never done as far as the author was aware. From 1790 to 1810 many canals were projected, and a good many built in South Wales. Later, a canal was constructed from Burry Port up the Gwendraeth Valley and converted into the present railway. The Old Harbour Canal Co. built a railway along the shore to Llanelly which a high tide subsequently destroyed.

Full details can be found in:

Sir Gar, Studies in Carmarthenshire History;

Essays in Memory of W H Morris and M C S Evans edited by Heather James, Carmarthen 1991;

Pembrey and Burry Port, Their Harbours, Shipwrecks and Looters by John A Nicholson.

The Gravell's Stagecoach

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