Workshop, store and smithy at Neath Canal Depot

Location

On the N side of the Neath Canal almost opposite Lock House and facing a small yard on the E side.

History

The Neath Canal was begun in 1791 and opened in 1794. Traffic ceased in 1921. The workshop is probably late C18 or early C19 and is shown on the Llantwit-Juxta-Neath Tithe map. The smithy was added in the third quarter of the C19 and is first shown on the 1870s Ordnance Survey, on which a projecting storage are is shown in front of the workshop.

Exterior

A 2-unit single-storey structure comprising a workshop on the S side of snecked stone and smithy on the N side of rubble stone, placed end to end. A butt joint between the two is clearly visible in the W elevation, but the E elevation is a late C20 rebuild in random rubble. Both units have renewed slate roofs, with skylights to the W slope. Projecting in front of the workshop on the E side facing the yard is a square open-sided canopy with rubble piers and pyramidal slate roof which is mostly late C20 rebuild. It was probably used for storing timber. Facing the yard the workshop has 2 doorways, the smithy a single segmental-headed doorway, all rebuilt and with boarded doors. A blocked segmental-headed window is in the N gable end of the smithy. The S gable end has a single loft opening under a lintel now boarded up. The rear wall has a blocked window to the R of the workshop, its original head now missing and rebuilt with random rubble. The smithy has 2 short square stone stacks rising from the eaves.

Interior

The roofs are carried on softwood trusses. A dividing wall separates the 2 units. The smithy at the N end is at a lower level.

Reason for designation

Listed, notwisthstanding reconstruction, for its industrial archaeological interest as an integral component of the most complete depot of any of the South Wales canals.