model of slipway and upper gate.

Ryan Thomas, Planning Control Manager at the City and County of Swansea, visited the Old Council Yard site in Pontardawe Road Clydach today, accompanied boy our chairman, Cllr Gordon Walker. The site is now refered to as the Clydach Lock site or more familiarly as the Hidden Lock or Buried Lock site. Of course once the lock is restored (our long term vision) it will be neither hidden nor buried, of course.  The lock (number seven on the  original Swansea Canal going north to Abercraf) had, before its burial in 1973, the Clydach Lock name. Since its interment, however, the Mond Lock (tw0 hundred yards south) has rather usurped the name of the village as its working title.

This is rather by the by, as we are a long way from having a working lock in the site. However, we and our partners, the Canal and River Trust, need to start exploratory work on the original route of the by-wash round the lock and also decide on a new route for  the water to flow through the site ensuring that Vale Inco at the Mond have a continuous supply of water. Once this is done, the canal water in the pipe through the buried lock can be diverted into the new channel leaving a dry and safe environment to work in.

Clydach Buried Lock site looking north.

We will need to submit our plans for this exploratory work to the Planning Department as soon as possible. It was Mr Thomas’s first visit to the site for sometime and he was very impressed with the new towpath we had had built and the work we had done on the buildings that had had to be demolished or moved to  ensure a straight towpath.

Buildings being demolished over the line of the old canal 2017.