Navigation Basin – Abercynon
In 1802 the Merthyr or Penydarren Tramroad was completed from its northern
terminus near the Penydarren Ironworks to a place that was then called
Navigation. It was here, at a point near to the River Cynon’s confluence
with the Taff that the junction with the Glamorganshire Canal was made.
While the tramroad had followed the eastern bank of the river for almost its
entire length, the canal had been constructed along the western side,
descending in a flight of sixteen locks from high on the valley side near
Cefn Glas to river level.
At that point an aqueduct carried it across the Taff to what was to become
known as ‘The Basin’ at Navigation. Long before the sinking of the Dowlais-Cardiff
Colliery nearby and the growth of Abercynon itself the area adjacent to the
present day fire station and Navigation House Inn was one of constant and
intense activity. Here was a dock, wharfs, warehouses and offices, for it
was at this place that nearly all of the iron produced by the Dowlais,
Penydarren and Plymouth ironworks was transshipped from the wagons on the
tramroad, to the narrow boats of the canal company.
Imported iron-ore on its journey north for the ironworks was also handled
here. It is therefore, impossible to exaggerate the importance of
Navigation, as for over sixty years it remained a vital link in the line of
transport between the areas of iron production around Merthyr Tydfil and the
docks at Cardiff. One can only try to imagine the scenes of excitement here
in 1804 when locomotive, wagons, iron goods and passengers arrived at the
end of the long and not uneventful journey from Penydarren, and it is sad to
reflect that we have no detailed eyewitness accounts which would give us a
greater insight into and appreciation of this historic event. The site is,
however, marked by another monument (in front of the modern Fire Station)
erected to commemorate the historic event.
Like many other industrial tramways throughout the land, the Penydarren was
built to accommodate wagons which were to be horse drawn, and while it was
to be over a quarter of a century after its opening that the use of steam
locomotives would become an everyday occurrence, the events of February 21st
1804 single it out as a tramroad that is different and special. We will
resist the temptation to make exaggerated or extravagant claims regarding
the significance of that day, but suffice to say that Trevithick’s
experiment with steam traction here, laid part of the foundations of a
transport revolution.