Hay
and the Wye valley
Transport
Water transport | ||
Great rivers like the River
Wye were used for transport for hundreds of years, because
moving anything heavy was much easier in a barge or boat than it was in
a cart. |
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The
detail above from an early 19th century engraving
shows boats drawn up on the river bank by the bridge at Hay. The higher up the river you travel the shallower the water gets, so really big barges would not have travelled into the upper Wye. The best time for transporting materials by boat was in winter when the water was deeper, and it is thought that barges could get up to Glasbury when the river was in flood. Smaller craft could get even further upstream. To sail the boats against the strong current meant hauling them by ropes from the bank. This must have been back-breaking work. |
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