Artist in Residence

Cheon Pyo Lee, an artist who is based in New York, has been chosen to spend a six month residence on the Swansea Canal. His stay with us is sponsored by the School of Art and Design in Wrexham, Glandwr Cymru, and the Arts Council of Wales. He began his residence here in December and will leave in June.

Cheon was born in South Korea, moved to Paraguay at the age of eight but completed his art studies in America. He hopes to work with the local community here to complete an art work that will capture the heritage of the canal and its contribution to the growth of Swansea as the Copper capital of the world.

Trebanos Lower Lock.

Our volunteers have laboured long and hard with much local help and support to partially restore this Lock. We have been greatly helped by the materials and expertise provided by Canal and River Trust. Over the last five months, we have repointed the lock chamber, built retaining walls at the bottom end of the lock, and unearthed parts of the original structure long buried. We have also cleared the encroaching silt in the channel and stabilised the banks using a mix of either willow hurdles or a porous membrane attached to deep sunk poles. Staff from the local Virgin Media call centre, MIND, Lloyds Bank and the Whitethorns Day Care Centre carers and customers have also contributed to this project.

Clydach Lock.

We will be turning our attention to Clydach Lock shortly. Generous grants from the Michael Wills Wildlife Trust and the Vale Inco works will enable us to purchase replacement sleepers and stop planks. Repointing of the lock will also take place. A scale model of what a restored Clydach Lock will look like will be on display at Clydach Library from February 20th.
The section of the canal from Clydach Aqueduct to the covered section under the Old Highways Depot has now been officially adopted by the Swansea Canal Society under the Canal and River Trust’s Adoption Scheme.

Swansea Bay Inland Waterways Partnership.

The aim to link up the Neath, Tennant and Swansea Canals through the Prince of Wales Dock and the River Tawe has been our goal for many years. Now we have a partnership of eleven stake holder groups who support the principle of this aim and are getting round a table to discuss it. There have been four meetings so far and the next one will be held on board the ‘Copper Jack’ Community Boat in April.

The latest draft of the CCoS Fabian Way Masterplan allows for protection of a route for the Tennant Canal into the east side of the Prince of Wales Dock and also for a lock out on the other side into the River Tawe. This is heartening news even though funding for such a project is not yet available.

Waterways Recovery Group

For the fourth year running a summer camp of WRG volunteers will be helping us to restore the Trebanos Locks. They will be here from the 18th to the 23rd July and be staying, as usual, at the Ynyscedwyn Scout Hut. We look forward to welcoming them once more to the lovely Lower Swansea Valley.

Rural Communities Development Fund.
Our application for funding from the RCDF for a Heritage Trail along the old route of the canal from Godre’r Graig to Ystalyfera has now been submitted. It will go before the Local Action Group for their comments. If our replies to their comments are favourable we will be put through to the next stage of the process.

Green Flag Award

We have also submitted an application to Keep Wales Tidy for a Green Flag Award for the length of the canal in water. This will recognise our significant efforts to make the canal a clean, wildlife friendly, linear park attractive to birds, insects, and animals as well as humans.

+
Canoe Hire: 2016 Season
We will be opening up our canoes and kayaks for hire each Sunday from Easter Sunday, March 27th. We will be holding a training day on Sunday March 13th for all those interested in helping to man the canoe store this year. It will be run by suitably qualified instructors. If you are interested in helping us this season please e-mail us on – info@swanseacanalsociety.com

Heritage Consultant Talks

Clive Reed our Heritage Consultant, who was responsible for saving a great deal of the canal that exists today, gives regular talks on the history and heritage of the canal. In 2015 he gave 18 talks, with a slide show, to a variety of organisations. We thank him for his continued dedication to the society and can recommend his talks to anyone interested in the canal.