84101

 

II  

Designated  

28/02/2005  

28/02/2005  

Aqueduct SE of Church of St Cynllo  

 

Powys  

Nantmel  

 

Nantmel  

303511  

266263  

 

In a field SE of the churchyard, spanning a steep-sided dingle.  

 

 

Part of the Birmingham Corporation scheme to supply water to the city from reservoirs in the Elan Valley. The project began in 1892 with the construction of the reservoirs and opened in 1904. Chief engineer was James Mansergh, joined and later succeeded as project engineers by his sons Ernest Lawson Mansergh and Walter Leahy Mansergh. The water was conveyed principally by means of a subterranean aqueduct, but where the ground level fell below the hydraulic gradient one of the solutions (as used here) was to build an aqueduct above ground.  

An 8-span aqueduct carrying a steel conduit across a steep-sided brook. Of coursed rock-faced stone with freestone dressings and quoins. Segmental arches of 20-foot (6.1m) span have prominent keystones. Tapering piers are continued up to the coped parapet as freestone panelled pilasters. A thick band is beneath the parapet. Original iron railings and gates are at the ends. The conduit is buried beneath gravel within the trough of the aqueduct.  

 

Listed for its special architectural and historic interest as a well-detailed aqueduct of definite quality and character in a prominent location, and as an integral component of one of the foremost civil engineering projects of the early C20 in Wales.