Aberdare Canal

Aberdare Canal / Camlas Aberdâr
The cast iron bridge of 1811 which carried the canal tramway over the Afon Cynon
Specifications
Locks	2 (locks rise 13 ft)
Status	Built over
History
Original owner	Aberdare Canal Co
Principal engineer	Thomas Sheasby junior
Date of act	1793
Date of first use	1812
Date closed	1900
Geography
Start point	Aberdare 51°42′41″N 3°25′52″W / 51.7115°N 3.4312°W / 51.7115; -3.4312 (Aberdare Canal (head))
End point	Abercynon 51°38′59″N 3°19′01″W / 51.6496°N 3.3169°W / 51.6496; -3.3169 (Aberdare Canal (junction with Glamorganshire Canal))
Connects to	Glamorganshire Canal

The Aberdare Canal (Welsh: Camlas Aberdâr) was a canal in Glamorganshire, Wales which ran from Aberdare to a junction with the Glamorganshire Canal at Abercynon. It opened in 1812, and served the iron and coal industries for nearly 65 years. The arrival of railways in the area did not immediately affect its traffic, but the failure of the iron industry in 1875 and increasing subsidence due to coal mining led to it becoming uneconomic. The Marquess of Bute failed to halt its decline when he took it over in 1885, and in 1900 it was closed on safety grounds. The company continued to operate a tramway until 1944. Most of the route was buried by the construction of the A4059 road in 1923, although a short section at the head of the canal remains in water and is now a nature reserve. The company was wound up in 1955.

By the 1780s, industry in the area around Aberdare was developing. John Maybery and Thomas Wilkins owned an ironworks at Hirwaun, which was leased by Anthony Bacon. He died in 1786, and the lease was taken over by Samuel Glover from Birmingham, who built a tramway. The nearby Neath Canal was authorised in 1791, and from its terminus at Glynneath, a tramway could be constructed to reach Hirwaun. Glover joined several others who were promoting the development of the Taff Valley, and plans for a branch canal from the Glamorganshire Canal to Aberdare, with feeder tramways, were conceived. Funds to survey a canal to link the Glamorganshire Canal to the Neath Canal were raised in 1792, and the canal engineer John Dadford surveyed a route for a road along the Aberdare Valley at the same time. Dadford presented evidence to a House of Commons Committee in February 1793, and to the House of Lords in early March. The Aberdare Canal Company was incorporated by an Act of Parliament obtained on 28 March 1793, which authorised the company to build a canal from Aberdare to Abercynon (at the time called Navigation) and a railway from Aberdare to Glynneath, on the Neath Canal. The Act also empowered the company to build tramroads to any mines, quarries or works within 8 miles (13 km) of the route of the canal and railway. To complete this task, it had powers to raise an initial £22,500, and a further £11,000 if required. A turnpike road from Abercynon to Glynneath via Aberdare was authorised on the same day.