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HISTORICAL RESEARCH

The Underwater Village of Llanwddyn

  • The city of Liverpool was searching for a clean water source for their population, as it had recently been discovered that diseases such as cholera were waterborne, which was having a huge negative impact on the people of Liverpool's health

  • After much research into different water sources, it was decided that the best way to supply Liverpool with water was by building a reservoir, the largest artificial reservoir in Europe at the time and the first large masonry dam in Britain

  • Their chosen location for the reservoir was the village of Llanwddyn, as the area experienced a large amount of annual rainfall, causing one third of the valley to remain under water during winter which was useless for agriculture

  • Llanwddyn also had a small population who could be cheaply and easily rehoused further along the valley

  • The village of Llanwddyn was demolished and then flooded, described by some as 'drowning for Liverpool'

  • To me, this story causes much sadness as the people of Llanwddyn were forced to abandon their homes and leave the village, which for many people was the only place that they had known, just because it was the cheapest and most convenient way to supply Liverpool with water, with very little care for the people who were losing their beloved village and home.

The History of Britain's Canals

  • The first canals were built during the roman era for irrigation purposes, which aided the growth of agricultural crops

  • The construction of castles and churches during medieval times led to the improvement of rivers so that they could be used to transport materials and goods. The 16th Century then saw the introduction of locks

  • As trade began to rapidly increase during the 17th Century, it outgrew Britain's poor transport system (e.g mud roads). The outcome was the establishment of canals built in certain areas where goods needed to reach, such as the transportation of coal for heavily industrialised areas, Birmingham and Manchester for instance, an idea heavily inspired by France's Canal du Midi. This led to the 'Golden Age' of canals from the 1770s - 1830s

  • However, due to the rise in railway transportation, canal use declined after the 1850s which eventually led to most canals in Britain being abandoned. This decline continued as roads were improved and factories that previously used coal either switched fuels or shut down due to the 1956 Clean Air Act

  • Since the 1950s, canals are now used mostly for leisure activities or are owned by trusts as historical/beauty spots

Montgomery Canal

  • The Montgomery canal runs for 38 miles from a junction with the Llangollen Canal near Ellesmere in Shropshire to Newtown in Montgomeryshire, now part of Powys

  • Some sections of the canal are no longer in water, whereas others are isolated

  • The canal is historically an amalgam of three separate enterprises, the Montgomery Canal proper is just the length that runs from Llanymynech to Garthmyl and dates from 1794. It was designed to connect with a side branch of the Ellesmere Canal that was at that time projected to run from Chester through Wrexham and Ruabon to the River Severn at Shrewsbury. However the speed of development of rival canals and, as ever, a shortage of money caused a pause of several years...' 

  • Traffic on the canal was mainly local, mostly centred on the limestone quarries and limekilns at Pant and Llanymynech with coal coming onto the canal from local pits on the Llangollen Canal

  • The Shropshire Union imported grain in to Maesbury Mill from Ellesmere Port, whilst general cargo of all sorts was carried by the company, some of it in ‘fly’ boats which operated as a ‘next-day’ delivery service until 1920. Many small warehouses for this traffic still stand

  • The now derelict canal has reverted to nature, becoming a haven for several rare plants and animals and some sections have been designated Sites of Special Scientific Importance. This is brilliant for ecology but not so much for volunteers trying to restore the canal

My Derelict Building Photographs

Montgomery Canal Photographs

History of Newtown

  • On 16th January 1279 King Edward I granted Roger de Montgomery a charter to create a new market town, Newtown. New streets were laid out, and those streets remain those of the town centre to this day.

  • The new town was protected by a motte and bailey fortification, the remains of which can be seen near the County Council Offices in the Park.

  • For a while, in the middle of the fifteenth century, Newtown became a cultural centre for Wales. Dafydd Llwyd, who lived at Newtown Hall, held bardic contests lasting up to two months attracting thousands of people Newtown.

  • For centuries there had been a woollen industry in Mid Wales. Technological advances changed it to an urban industry. Factories were established, using the river as motive power. In this first phase of development weaving was still done by hand and Newtown quickly became a major centre of handloom weaving.

  • The small town began to expand, following the opening of the canal in 1819. Between 1801 and 1841 the population of the town rose from under a thousand to over four and a half thousand.

  • Social reformer Robert Owen was born in a shop in Broad Street in 1771. By the 1830s Newtown was meeting stiff competition from elsewhere, particularly Rochdale, and workers’ wages were being driven down. The first Chartist meeting in Wales was held in Newtown in October 1838.

  • The introduction of steam power in large new woollen mills gave new impetus to trade. Also local draper, Pryce Jones, exploited this new form of communication by creating the mail-order system of selling, dealing with his customers for woollen goods by post. Thus did Pryce Jones establish the first mail order firm in the world. Even Queen Victoria wore Welsh flannel from Newtown.

  • Competition from Lanchasire and Yorkshire caused Newtown’s industry eventually to collapse. In 1912 a catastrophic fire at the huge Cambrian Mills effectively marked the end of woollen cloth manufacture as a major industry in Newtown. 

  • Matters were made worse by two disastrous floods that raged through the town in 1960 and 1964.

  • The Mid Wales New Town Development Corporation was set up in 1968 to double the size of the town by building new houses and factories, the town had become to look much as it does now.

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Flooding in Newtown: Past & Present

  • 'Newtown experienced early flooding in 1908 and two serious floods in 1960 and 1964, which prompted the building of flood defences starting in 1966 and continuing through the early 1970s.

  • In 1960 the River Severn rushed through the town centre destroying many of the town's shops and carrying away stock in its wake.

  • Mr Pugh added: "Telegraph poles were stored in a building where the bus station now stands and these were taken away by the flood water. The telegraph poles acted like torpedoes and smashed into many buildings causing untold damage."

  • The second torrent took place on Saturday, 12 and Sunday, 13 December 1964. The second flood meant that shopkeepers could no longer get insurance for their businesses and the town council could not afford to pay for flood defences. "Many people felt that the town was doomed and the town would have to be abandoned,". Luckily the 1965 New Towns Act prompted the government to protect the town with a major flood prevention scheme.'

  • Unfortunately in February and March of 2020, Newtown (among others in Wales) was hit by flooding once again, with local people claiming that it is the worst flooding that they have seen since the great floods of the '60s.

  • 'With the ground already saturated following Storm Ciara last weekend, it didn’t take much for Storm Dennis to wreak havoc this morning with one emergency worker saying it’s the “worst I've seen”.

  • 'Minor roads are closed and emergency services are warning people to stay at home and avoid travel wherever possible.'

  • The question is, will this happen again? As climate change continues to increase, causing all sorts of extreme weather, how will places such as Newtown with a history of flooding cope? Will these places eventually have to be abandoned as they feared in the 1960s?

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