Morfydd Street Bridges and Boundary Wall to Davies Street

Cadw's description

Location

Situated at the lower end of Morfydd Street, where it crosses the line of the Swansea Canal, now marked by a footpath in an area of landscaped park.

History

Built c1794-6 as one of the original structures of the Swansea Canal, which linked the growing port and industrial centre of Swansea with a large hinterland and was vital to its development. The bridge was built at a place where the towing path needed to cross from one side of the canal to the other and a street of the planned town of Morriston was intersected.

Exterior

The bridge is of rubble sandstone, with a primitive copper slag string course, rubble voussoirs, and slag copings. The canal has been filled in to above towpath level. The bridge is complex in structure, consisting of two crossings of the canal together. The north part has the appearance of a typical eighteenth-century canal 'changeover bridge' to carry the towpath from one bank to the other. The deck was approached by two ramps from the towpath, forming a sweeping curve on the north face of the bridge. One ramp joined onto the towpath which had come under the bridge, and the other to the towpath which continued opposite. This arrangement was to allow horses to change banks without the rope being untied. The south part of the bridge has a steeply inclined deck carrying Morfydd Street down the hill, with high parapets on each side, the northerly of which separates it from the towpath crossing. The bridge was extended in the mid nineteenth century with a span in similar materials to the west, carrying Morfydd Street over a railway branch. A boundary wall of similar materials continues southward on the west side of the railway route for the length of Davies Street.

Reason for designation

'Changeover' bridges are unique to canals of the Industrial Revolution, and are very rare in Wales. This example is particularly interesting in being combined with a road bridge. It is one of the few remaining canal structures in Swansea.