17630

 

II  

Designated  

15/03/1996  

15/03/1996  

Dry Dock to W of embanked Aqueduct  

 

Monmouthshire  

Llanfoist Fawr  

 

Govilon  

326356  

213674  

 

Immediately to west of the aqueduct that carries the canal around the steep hillside and over a stream high above the village of Govilon.  

Transport  

 

 

History: The Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal was promoted in 1792 to connect the upper Usk valley to the Monmouthshire Canal at Pontymoile and from there to the sea at Newport. Construction began in 1797, with Thomas Dadford as engineer, and the first section, from Gilwern to Llangynidr was completed in that year with the stretch as far as Brecon following in 1800. Work then stopped for a time with the result that the section to the Blaenavon Road east of Govilon was not completed until 1805, now with Thomas Cartwright as engineer. Further funds had to be raised and the last section from west of Llanfoist to Pontymoile was completed between 1809 and 1812, with William Crosley as engineer. Linked to tramroads, the canal was an important artery for trade in iron, limeand coal. In 1865 the Monmouthshire and the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Companies merged becoming the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal Company. Later still the canal was bought out by the Great Western Railway and gradually the canal was run down until it was finally abandoned in 1962. Restoration work was begun in 1964 and is still ongoing. Included for group value with the Embanked Aqueduct and other canal structures as a surviving feature of the early C19 canal. References: Nicholson's guides to the Waterways, vol 3, South-west, p49-55, (n.d.). R A Stevens, Brecknock & Abergavenny and Monmouthshire Canals (Towpath Guide No 2), (Cambridge, 1974), p50.