| Serving the needs of local industry |
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It can sometimes
be hard to imagine it nowadays, but the
canals, which the Victorians inherited from an earlier age, were
once noisy, bustling places serving the needs of industry and agriculture. Coal, iron and other essential goods were loaded at wharves and warehouses, and carried along the waterways in huge canal boats towed by strong horses. |
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| Canals, like
the tramroads, were built because they made it possible for horses to pull
much heavier loads
than in wagons on the often very poor roads of the time. The boats on the Swansea Canal could carry about 25 tons, and once the canal boat was under way it was fairly easy for the towing horse to keep it moving at a slow but steady speed. |
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An
old
canal boat left to rot at Ystalyfera |
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Disused
lock on the canal (right)
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The photograph above, probably from
the 1950s, shows the sad end of one of the old canal
boats once used on the Swansea Canal.
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RDR
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