Qualla: Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit --Immanuel Giel 10:03, 16 August 2007 (UTC), Public domain. In 1796 the Monmouthshire Canal carried 3,500 tons of coal a year. By 1809 it carried 150,000 tons. That growth is a graph of the Industrial Revolution in one waterway, the iron and coal of the South Wales valleys feeding into the docks at Newport and from there out to the world. The Mon and Brec, as boatmen called it, was originally two separate canals, the Monmouthshire from Newport to Pontymoile and the Brecknock and Abergavenny from Pontymoile to Brecon, both built by acts of Parliament and both intended to make money. They did, for a while. Then railways arrived. Today, 35 navigable miles of the canal wind through the Brecon Beacons National Park, and the rural calm of the towpath gives no hint of the industrial fury that paid for it.

Image: --Immanuel Giel 10:03, 16 August 2007 (UTC) | Public domain

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: Two Canals, One Network

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Keith Salvesen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Monmouthshire Canal was authorised by an Act of Parliament passed on 11 June 1792, allowing the new Company of Proprietors of the Monmouthshire Canal Navigation to raise £120,000, with another £60,000 in reserve, to dig a waterway from Pontnewynydd down to the River Usk near ...

Image: Keith Salvesen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: The Tramroads That Fed It

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. A canal is only as useful as the network feeding it. The Mon and Brec spawned dozens of horse-drawn tramroads running down from the collieries and ironworks at the heads of the valleys. The Sirhowy Tramroad was constructed between 1802 and 1805 with later branches to the Trefil l...

Image: Public domain

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: The Decline Years

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Coal traffic peaked early and the railways killed the rest. By the 1850s, schemes were being proposed to abandon the Monmouthshire Canal outright. In 1865 the Monmouthshire Company, by then reconstituted as the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company, bought the Brecknock and Abe...

Image: Robin Drayton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: The Resurrection

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robin Drayton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Restoration began in 1970. The Brecknock and Abergavenny route reopened in stages and is now navigable from Brecon to Pontymoile, a beautiful 35-mile run along the southern flank of the Black Mountains. Volunteers led by the Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust, wor...

Image: Robin Drayton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: The Day the Gilwern Bank Failed

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cornishstrongbitter at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 16 October 2007, part of the canal bank near Gilwern collapsed. Eight people were rescued by local fire and emergency services. The A4077 road between Crickhowell and Gilwern closed, two families had to leave their homes, and 23 hire boats were stranded and had to be craned ou...

Image: Cornishstrongbitter at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0