History in Structure

Lock Chambers 31 & 32 with attached walls, Glamorganshire Canal

A Grade II Listed Building in Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taff

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.6023 / 51°36'8"N

Longitude: -3.3316 / 3°19'53"W

OS Eastings: 307872

OS Northings: 190114

OS Grid: ST078901

Mapcode National: GBR HQ.BBP8

Mapcode Global: VH6DK.6ZKK

Plus Code: 9C3RJM29+W9

Entry Name: Lock Chambers 31 & 32 with attached walls, Glamorganshire Canal

Listing Date: 26 February 2001

Last Amended: 26 February 2001

Grade: II

Source: Cadw

Source ID: 24857

Building Class: Transport

ID on this website: 300024857

Location: On the S side of Ynysangharad Road and to the rear of the Bunch of Grapes public house.

County: Rhondda Cynon Taff

Town: Pontypridd

Community: Pontypridd

Community: Pontypridd

Locality: Pentrebach

Built-Up Area: Pontypridd

Traditional County: Glamorgan

Tagged with: Lock

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History

The Glamorganshire Canal Act was passed in 1790 and the canal opened in 1794 from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, primarily to serve the growing output of the ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil. Its engineers were Thomas Dadford and Thomas Sheasby. The steep gradient between Merthyr and Cardiff - a fall of 165.5m in 40.2km - was overcome by erecting 51 locks, instead of the inclined planes favoured on other canals. These included a triple lock at Nantgarw (which has not survived) and the double lock at Pontypridd. The rapid growth in output of iron soon led to congestion on the canal, however, but the large volume of trade from the ironworks ensured that the canal survived the opening of the Taff Vale Railway in 1841. Traffic declined sharply when the ironworks declined in the late C19 and coal companies preferred rail transport. The upper section N of Pontypridd was almost disused by the late C19, but the section between Nantgarw and Pontypridd did not close until a breach at Nantgarw in 1942.

Exterior

Comprising 2 adjoining lock chambers with rendered walls and hammer-dressed flat copings. The gates are missing, but the recesses that housed them have coursed hammer-dressed stone walls (part replaced in brick to the N end of the upper lock). At the junction of the 2 locks, on the E side, is a wall of thin coursed rubble stone, possibly to carry a bridge. On the corresponding W side is a later brick abutment.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for industrial archaeological interest as a surviving double-lock combination necessitated by the steep gradients on the Glamorganshire Canal and as 2 of the few surviving locks on the Glamorganshire Canal.

Group value with the adjacent canal bridge and Newbridge Chainworks canal basin.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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