Pontcysyllte Tour

The aqueduct is supported by 18 tapering sandstone piers quarried from the nearby Cefn Mawr and cast iron arches which carry a narrow iron trough for a distance of 307 metres/ 1007 feet, making it the longest navigable aqueduct when it was built. No wonder that the writer Sir Walter Scott described the aqueduct as ‘the stream in the sky’ and ‘the most impressive work of art’ he had ever seen.

William Hazledine supplied the cast iron from his foundries at Cefn Mawr and Shrewsbury and wrought iron from Upton Forge.

The cast iron handrails are only on the towpath side. There was never a railing intended for the other side, so passengers on boats crossing over the aqueduct have to take great care!

Tow rope grooves can be seen on the railings at the start of the aqueduct from the days when horses pulled the boats. There is also a plaque which states that the cost of the aqueduct was £47,000 – which would be over £4 million today. Actually the aqueduct cost about £38,500 and the embankment leading to it a further £8,500.

Telford was the Institute’s first President from 1820 until his death fourteen years later. In his early years he had the nickname ‘Laughing Tam’, as his manner was so genial and vivacious and he had a hearty laugh! Later on he gained more prestigious nicknames such as the ‘Godfather of Civil Engineering’ as well as the ‘The Colossus of Roads’.

Thomas Telford was born in Scotland and was apprenticed to a local stonemason. He moved to Edinburgh and then London where he gained the friendship and patronage of the Shrewsbury MP Sir William Pulteney, who was originally from the same Dumfriesshire area of Scotland. He commissioned Telford to remodel his residence Shrewsbury Castle, and was so impressed with Thomas’s work that he played a key role in his appointment as Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire.

As a progressive engineer Thomas Telford was keen to try out new materials, and he pioneered the use of cast iron on the Longdon aqueduct over the River Tern in Shropshire.

In 1793 Telford was appointed General Agent, the equivalent of Chief Executive, of the Ellesmere Canal Company, part of which has become Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site.

His Holyhead Road, built to link London with Ireland, passes through the World Heritage Site. The iconic Conwy and Menai Suspension Bridges were both designed by Telford and at the time the Menai Bridge had the longest and highest span in Europe.

Much of his greatest work was done in Scotland, where he was responsible for building over 900 miles of roads and over 1000 bridges, and building or improving over 100 harbours, such as Wick harbour in the far north of Scotland. He also designed Pulteneytown, a model housing development for fishermen.

He died in 1834 at his home in Westminster and was buried at the nearby Abbey.

Ten years later on 26 November 1805, a crowd of over 8000 gathered for the grand opening of the aqueduct. Spectators watched as the procession of six boats departed from Froncysllte Basin just before 2pm. The first boat carried the Earl of Bridgewater with other important dignitaries including the local landowner Sir Watkin Williams Wynne. Thomas Telford, committee members and the ‘Ladies of Llangollen’ followed in the second boat. The third boat carried the Shropshire Volunteers’ band lustily playing ‘God save the King’ and other patriotic tunes such as ‘Rule Britannia’. The next boat was filled with the engineers and others, such as the owners of mines and foundries connected with building the aqueduct.

The final two boats were empty, ready to carry the first loads of coal from William Hazledine’s Plas Kynaston collieries across the aqueduct. As soon as the first boat entered the aqueduct cannons fired a salute, and the crowd watching cheered. In a speech at the official opening it was boldly pronounced that the aqueduct ‘is destined to convey the riches of the mineral kingdom into the world of industry, and thence to every part of the universe’.

This spectacle was partly re-enacted in 2005 to mark the bi-centenary of the opening of the aqueduct with a procession of boats coming across the canal.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal was designated a World Heritage Site on 27 June, 2009, ten years after it had been included on a tentative list of 25 possible future World Heritage Sites.

Celebrations were held on 3 October 2009 to mark this great achievement with the unveiling of the plaque and presentation of the certificate of inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Between five and ten people were employed to maintain boats and the wagons for the tramroad. In 1914 six boats were built here because the boat-builders employed at Chester were on strike. These included ‘fly-boats’, express delivery boats built to run non-stop day and night to carry important and perishable goods.

Saturn was one such fly-boat built at Chester in 1906 and used to rush cheese and other fresh produce from farms in Cheshire and Shropshire to industrial towns and cities, such as Manchester and Wolverhampton. She remained a horse-drawn cargo boat into the 1950s but then was converted to a hotel boat. She was fully restored by 2005 and took part in the bi-centenary celebrations of the opening of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Saturn is now used as a travelling education resource and heritage attraction.

Dock Cottage was built for the manager of the docks in the early 1800s but by 1838 had a smithy and beer shop attached to it. You can see on the gable end where the roof was raised in brick above the original sandstone.

The Canal and River Trust visitor centre building, dating from the late 1800s, was probably originally used as workshops and stores.

The chapel probably needed to be replaced as the congregation had outgrown the original chapel, as happened with many non-conformist chapels in the 1800s to the early 1900s. Not long after the chapel was built it is likely that even more people would have come to the chapel on Sundays as in 1904 the Methodist Revival led by Evan Roberts swept the whole of Wales.