Pont Gam

Cadw's description

Location

On the E side of the Aberdulais Basin at the junction of the Neath and Tennant Canals.

History

The Tennant Canal, engineered by William Kirkhouse, was begun in 1821 and opened in 1824 from the Neath Canal at Aberdulais to Port Tennant, Swansea. Traffic declined from the 1860s due to competition with railways but the canal did not close to commercial traffic until 1934.

Pont Gam was built in 1823 over the junction of the Neath and Tennant Canals. The bridge allowed horses to pass over the bridge to continue along the Neath Canal towpath, or to pass under the bridge from the Neath to the Tennant Canal.

Exterior

A high single-arched bridge of coursed sandstone. The segmental arch has a tooled arch ring. On the SE side is a rounded and stepped cutwater, where the Neath and Tennant Canals are joined. To the SW is a ramped approach, set at an angle with the parapet, which is corbelled out over the abutment on the E side.

On the N side the parapets curve out at acute angles, being corbelled out over the abutment on the W side. The parapets all descend to water level, retain much original flat stone coping but are also partly renewed with concrete, especially on the E side.

Reason for designation

Listed for its industrial archaeological interest as an early C19 canal structure, and for group value with other associated listed items on the Tennant Canal at Aberdulais. Thought to be the earliest skew-arch bridge in Wales.