Wales – Pembrey old canal

The path alongside the old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire, Pembrey...

These pictures were taken in an area called Ffrwd Farm Mire in Pembrey in April 2006, when I was looking for places associated with my paternal ancestors.

My great grandmother Ann PEREGRINE, whose parents James and Mary came originally from Llangendeirne, was born here in 1851.

Her address then was Canal End, so when I found an old canal in Pembrey I assumed this was the canal whose end she lived at. However, I later found there had been at least three canals in Pembrey. This was the last, while Ann had been born alongside the second canal, much nearer to the shore, in houses sometimes called Glo Caled or Stone Coal Houses. But more of that at the end of this gallery page.

Ah well, at the time I thought these might be where my great-grandmother was born, but now I know they were at the end of the wrong canal and probably much too grand for my ancestors, anyway...

For now, let’s just enjoy the country walk around Pembrey. There’s a guided walk leaflet all about the area on the Visit Carmarthenshire website. It’s in PDF form and well worth reading. There is much more to the walk than the old canal, but my pictures concentrate on that, because it is such an atmospheric place.

This one was apparently the Kidwelly to Llanelly Canal, finished in 1837. A company had been formed to build a harbour at Tywyn Bach (Burry Port) and this “New Pembrey Harbour”, about half a mile east of the “Old Harbour”, was opened in 1832.

When complete, the Kidwelly to Llanelly Canal ran from Kidwelly to the New Harbour Pembrey, bypassing the Old Harbour. About 11 miles long, the canal was far superior to all the other canals in the area.

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Minerals and goods were transported along the canal in horse-drawn barges. From 1837 until it was replaced by the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway in 1869 it carried nearly all the anthracite coal mined in the Gwendraeth Valley to be shipped from Burry Port.

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Hoary lichen and pixie-cup lichen on a tree along the old canal at Pembrey

A view from the old canal at Pembrey

Primroses in April along the old canal in Pembrey

This object from the top left of the previous picture is a bit of a mystery – very ornate bird dropping? Or the immature stage of an insect?

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Blackthorn in flower on the old Pembrey canal

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Path by the old canal – does it seem black with coal to you?

More hoary lichen…

View from the old canal…

Bracket fungi on a mossy tree…

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

View from the old canal at Pembrey…

Watery trees in the old canal…

Pembrey old canal at Ffrwd Farm Mire

Here are some more general views around Pembrey, perhaps in areas where my ancestors once walked…

Pembrey…

Pembrey…

Pembrey…

The main settlement of Pembrey…

And that must be St Illtyd’s Church, Pembrey…

For the record, here is some information about the place Ann Peregrine DID live, Glo Caled, which I received third hand, but some of it may be from John Nicholson’s book “Pembrey and Burry Port: Aspects of their history”, published by Llanelli Borough Council in 1993.

Canal Cottages (1823), Stone Coal Houses (1851) Canal End cottages (1861), originally comprised six cottages and they were named first as Glo Caled on the 1871 census.

They were alongside and near the end of the two-mile-long Pembrey Canal, cut in 1823-24 by the Pembrey Iron & Coal Co from Ty Gwyn Farm in Pinged, to carry coal and iron ore in horse-drawn barges.

The canal ended between Glo Caled and the embankment, and the coal was then transferred to tramway trams or tubs to be drawn by horses to the Old Harbour…

Another tramway from Glo Caled carried the iron ore under the former tramway embankment bridge (demolished during 1939-45 war) and continued in front of Cliff Cottage to join the Furnace embankment road and finally to the iron works in the Furnace.

After 1852 when the track of the South Wales railway had been completed through Pembrey, a crossing keeper was employed to ensure the safety of the trains and pedestrians walking the road from Pembrey to Burry Port. A section of the old road from Burry Port to the crossing may still be seen branching to the right from the start of the Links road, just beyond the golf club entrance.

One day I must go back and visit the golf links, where there is apparently an area near the shore still called Glo Caled…