The Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal was a canal and tramroad system in Carmarthenshire, Wales, which was built to carry anthracite coal to the coast for onward transportation by coastal ships. It began life as the Kymer Canal in 1766, was extended over a considerable period, and was ultimately replaced by the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway in 1869.
A series of meetings took place in 1811, to consider how the situation could be improved. Two engineers, Edward Martin and David Davies, proposed an extension of the canal to the top of the Gwendraeth valley, and another which would cross Pinged Marsh and would terminate at Llanelli, passing through Pembrey, in addition to improving access to the harbour. This was adopted, and an Act of Parliament passed on 20 June 1812 created The Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal and Tramroad Company. The Act envisaged an upper terminus beyond Cwmmawr at Cwm y Glo, and a series of feeder canals or tramroads to connect to the pits and levels where extraction of coal was taking place. It listed a total of 13 collieries which would be served in this way. Wharfs at the Llanelli terminus would be built next to the dock owned by the Carmarthenshire Railroad Company. Special provision, including the construction of a lock and weir, was made for the point where the new canal would cross the existing Ashburnham canal.
The newly formed Company were required to complete the extension from Pwll y Llygod to Pontyates and the first section of the Llanelli branch to the point where it crossed the Ashburnham canal within six years. Anthony Bower was the engineer, and construction was contracted to Pinkerton and Allen. The canal reached the new aqueduct across the Gwendraeth Fawr in 1815, but little progress was made between then and 1817. Much of the limited capital raised had been spent on attempts to re-open the harbour, with little success. A second Act of Parliament was obtained on 28 May 1818, which extended the time limit for building the canal, and also removed the requirement to clear the river channels to the harbour. Pinkerton and Allen pressed on with construction, completing the routes to Pontyates and the Ashburnham canal crossing in 1824, while the Company directors asked the engineers John Rennie and Edward Bankes to examine the issue of a suitable harbour. Rennie suggested the extension of the canal towards what is now Burry Port, and the construction of a new harbour on the sands at Tywyn Bach.
With the construction of a new harbour in progess, the Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal Company constructed a tramway from Llanelli to Pwll colliery. Another tramway was built from Burry Port to the coal levels at New Lodge, with a branch to Kilrhos. The intention was to link New Lodge to Pwll in due course, to provide a tramway link from the harbour to Llanelli, and this was eventually opened on 8 July 1837.
In 1832, the canal company asked the engineer James Green to advise on further extensions to the system. His first report was critical of much of the work completed by Pinkerton, and recommended completing the link from the Ashburnham canal to the new Pembrey harbour. This would require a lock at Ty Mawr, with water supplied by the Dyvatty brook and a new reservoir to be constructed at Cwm Capel in the Dyvatty valley. A second report, supplied three months later, recommended the extension along the Gwendraeth valley, and the construction of three inclined planes to reach a terminus just above Cwmmawr. Water supply for the upper sections would be from a new reservoir to be built above Cwm y Glo.
The idea of using inclined planes was an innovation which Green has pioneered elsewhere. He had been the engineer for the Bude Canal, which included six planes, five powered by water wheels and one powered by a descending bucket mechanism. He was at the time the engineer for the Grand Western Canal, which included seven vertical boat lifts and an inclined plane at Wellisford, again to be powered by a descending bucket mechanism. The rise on the final section of the canal to Cwmmawr was 190ft (58m), and three inclined planes would be much quicker and use much less water than the alternative of 20 or more locks.
The Pontnewydd aqueduct, which was of wooden construction, and was prone to the river flowing over the top of it, was replaced by a new iron one, built on a slightly higher level to provide more room for the river to flow under it. Pinkerton's two locks were rebuilt, and the banks of the Kymer canal were raised by 2ft, to allow the water level to be raised. This had also required the Kidwelly basin walls to be raised. At the southern end, a deep cutting was required to reach Burry Port harbour, and this was completed by March 1835.
Above Pontyates, two more locks were built, followed by an inclined plane with a rise of 52 feet (16m) at Capel Ifan, one with a rise of 53 feet at Pont Henry, and a third with a rise of 85 feet at Hirwaunissa, with level sections of canal in between. The upper terminus consisted of a walled basin, 200ft by 50ft (61m by 16m), reached by another aqueduct over the Gwendraeth Fawr. In October 1835, Green announced that he was unable to complete the inclined planes, due to cost overruns. The Company raised more capital by calling on shareholders, in order to finish the work, and on 30 January 1836, they dismissed Green as engineer. The Grand Western Canal Company had taken a similar action three days earlier, when the Wellisford inclined plane had failed to work, due to a design fault in the sizing of the descending bucket. All construction was completed by 1837.
Details of the inclined planes have been the subject of some speculation, largely because contemporary documents from the time of their construction are unknown. A local writer called Ap Huw stated that "the inclined planes were manipulated by hydraulic pumps which were considered to be great discoveries". He also noted that only two of the inclines were used, but whether this was because Hirwaunissa was unfinished or because there was no traffic on the upper section is not clear. The railway engineer W. Robinson described "balance caissons with hydraulic brakes apparatus to check the barges in their descent and to arrange that the full ones coming down pull the empty ones up." The Colliery Guardian carried an eye-witness report of their operation, in which they were described as self-acting inclines, and it is stated that all three were in operation at the time.
The other main sources of information are maps, particularly those published at the time the canal was to be converted into a railway. These clearly show twin-track inclines at Capel Ifan and Pont Henry, and because the majority of the traffic was in the downhill direction, a simple conterbalanced system was probably employed, although it has also been suggested that the barge may have been balanced by a water tank on the second track in order to control the speed of descent more easily. The Hirwaunissa incline was longer and narrower than the other two, and only included a single track. Recent research has suggested that the incline was powered by a water wheel, with the waste water running down the incline in a side channel, in order to supply the lower levels of the canal.
With the completion of the extensions, the canal settled down, and satisfactory levels of traffic were carried. 52 barges were operational in 1835, although their size is unknown. In 1858, dredging of the canal took place, and shareholders started to receive dividends on their investments. Most of the traffic was anthracite coal, which was shipped through Burry Port. Some culm was still shipped through Kidwelly. Major users in 1863 consisted of two collieries at Pwll y Llygod and one at Pontyberem. Success was short-lived, however, as railways started to appear in the region. Faced with the threat of the Carmarthenshire Railway building a branch to Pontyberem, the Canal Company obtained a new Act of Parliament, and became the Kidwelly and Burry Port Railway Company in 1865. The following year, the Burry Port and Gwendreath Valley Railway company was formed, by amalgamating with the Burry Port Harbour Company. (The spelling of Gwendraeth was wrong on the Act of Parliament.) The new company built a railway from Burry Port to Pontyberem, along the towpath over Pinged marsh, and on the bed of the canal elsewhere. This opened in July 1869. An extension to Kidwelly harbour followed in June 1873, and one to Cwmmawr in June 1886.
Although the main canal was replaced by the railway, Kymer's dock continued to be used for the transfer of coal to coastal ships for another 50 years. Principal destinations included Laugharne, Carmarthen, St Clears and Llanstephan. The Kidwelly Corporation took out a lease on the dock in 1872, and the railway build a branch to it in 1873, which ran alongside the old canal. Most of the traffic had transferred to the railway by 1914, but some coasters continued to transport coal, with the last recorded sailing bound for Llanstephan in the early 1920's.
Kymer's dock was used as a refuse tip in the 1950s. In 1988, a two year scheme funded by the Manpower Services Commission excavated and restored both the dock and a 1km section of the canal, from the dock to the point where its course is cut by the South Wales Railway. The Gwendraeth Fawr aqueduct is still in situ, as are parts of the Hirwaunissa inclined plane and the final aqueduct below Cwmmawr.
