Neath and Tennant: a jewel scorned?

 

A  Report on the November meeting of the Resolfen History Society

This month’s speaker was Mr Mike Jones of the Neath and Tennant Canal Trust. Rather than give a definitive history of the canals Mr Jones gave a detailed talk on the work undertaken by volunteer groups in restoring the Neath Canal over the last fifty years.

Starting in Glynneath , Canal Side, Mr Jones took the audience on a before and after guide of the canal during its excavation and restoration during the period when by the 1990s a large stretch of the canal had been restored in including the length man’s cottage at Tŷ Banc near the beautifully restored Resolven Basin. At that time three pleasure boats including a disabled barge plied the waterway on various stretches as far as Neath town centre. The “missing link” between the Ynisbipan lock and aqueduct as far as Abergarwed was not finished in this period and the aqueduct at Aberdulais which linked the Tennant canal with the Neath was now in a state of danger and disrepair.

The overriding message from the talk was one of missing opportunity. From the days of Neath Borough Council which took an active interest in the canal alongside the volunteer groups and a
European grant of some £2.5 million in making the area a tourist attraction. Since local government reorganisation in 1996, the tale has been one of neglect. Gradually the canal has become silted and even the industrial uses of the water at Giant’s Grave are now in severe drought. Lack of foresight has meant that a “jewel” which once held the British Waterway’s Festival in the early 2000s was now languishing when the potential of a 34mile waterway was largely ignored.

Turning to the Tennant Canal, Mr Jones stated that the waterway was still in the hands of the Coombe Tennant family and were rather uncooperative when approached in terms of restoration and the maintaining of the link with the Neath Canal.

Following a lengthy Q&A session, Mr David Woosnam thanked  Mr Jones for a very interesting talk.