Stanley's Tramroad Embankment, Pembrey

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument consists of the remains of a tramroad, dating to the 19th century. The Stanley Tramroad was built in 1819 to carry coal from Thomas Gaunt's Ivy Pit colliery roughly one mile to Pembrey Harbour. It is an impressive embankment of an early horse-drawn tramroad and was built to carry coal. Almost the whole route was formed by a confidently engineered and carefully graded embankment on a straight route. A stone bridge was inserted later for the Kidwelly and Llanelli Canal (later a railway) to pass underneath: its walls show score marks from towing ropes.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of the development of industrial transportation in the 18th and 19th century. The track bed, bridges, drainage systems, embankments and revetments may all be expected to contain archaeological information in regard to construction techniques and functional detail.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It includes the includes the full width of the embankment in three lengths. The northernmost begins at the start of the embankment and includes the canal bridge before coming to an end where the embankment has been broken at Ashburnham Road. The middle section begins south of the main line railway and a golf course trackway, and ends where the embankment is breached by road. The southernmost section extends from the opposite side of this road to a point just north of where the embankment disappears at a golf course tee.