84109

 

II  

Designated  

28/02/2005  

28/02/2005  

Carmel Aqueduct  

 

Powys  

Nantmel  

 

Carmel  

305821  

266412  

 

Spanning a minor road N of the A44 and continuing across Camlo Brook, approximately 2.4km E of Nantmel village.  

 

 

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. Originally the Carmel aqueduct incorporated a steel conduit spanning the road, but this was subsequently replaced by the present conventional bridge span.  

A single-span aqueduct over the road, continued on the E side with 11 spans crossing the shallow valley of the Camlo brook. Of rock-faced stone with freestone dressings and quoins. The 11 main 30-foot (9.2m) spans have segmental arches with prominent keystones. Tapering piers are continued up to the coped parapet as freestone pilasters. A moulded band is beneath the parapet. Double pilasters are at the ends, and spanning the road, where the walls are rendered between a cambered arch. The deck has iron railings, incorporating gates, 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 early C20 aqueduct of definite quality and character, and as an integral component of one of the foremost civil-engineering projects of the early C20 in Wales.