The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Just 12 feet wide, over 1,000 feet in length and 126 feet high in the sky, welcome to “A Stream in the Sky” and accredited World Heritage Site, 14th September 2022 (Author’s Collection).
Welcome to the third and final of my hat-trick of visits this English Summer to a Welsh monument to incredible engineering, accredited World Heritage Site, and a self titled “Stream in the Sky” 126 feet high into the Welsh sky. Within my travel archives you’ll find two editions similar to this one but with added sunshine and one article in particular, a tall (and true) tale of hitchhiking aboard a canal boat for three miles before crossing the magnificent aqueduct in the most perfect of ways possible. So I’ve walked through the beautiful canal “basin” at the brilliantly British named village of “Trevor”, across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and through to the nearby canal village of Froncysyllte six times this summer and the view from 126 feet in the sky next to a fully working canal is always as discombobulating as it is eerily beautiful.
During my previously published articles I haven’t specifically written about the aqueduct itself so both here in this introductory paragraph and periodically as part of the commentary for the images that follow, I’ll colour these beautiful images with information taken directly from the official website linked below, and an introduction to the “Stream in the Sky” such as this:
“Pontcysyllte pronounced Pont — ker — sulth — tay, is the Welsh name for ‘the bridge that connects’
11 miles of stunning canal and countryside spanning two countries, along aqueducts, tunnels and viaducts.
UNESCO has described this world heritage site as ‘a masterpiece of creative genius’. The first 11 miles of the Llangollen Canal is an outstanding piece of industrial and engineering heritage comprising of embankments, tunnels, viaducts and aqueducts, including the stunning Pontcysyllte Aqueduct itself and 31 other listed structures.
The whole length of the site has also been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument of National Importance, and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”.
A handful of miles away at Chirk is a sister aqueduct to Pontcysyllte here and will be a feature in a coming travel article and a beautiful visit to the town’s incredible castle, but in the meantime, I sincerely hope you enjoy this virtual stroll alongside a canal and the very epitome of a “Stream in the Sky”.
*All images captured by me on Thursday 14th September 2022*
A heartily endorsed stretch of the Llangollen canal together with the beautiful towns and villages that hug the banks of the canal as well as the River Dee. I have recently published an article on both Llangollen and the accompanying waterfall at “Horseshoe Falls” (top left/middle), in this article is the beautifully named “Trevor Basin” and accompanying World Heritage Site aqueduct and a future article sees a return to Chirk and the sister aqueduct to here at Pontcysyllte, as well as a special on the town’s incredible castle and gardens. Coming Soon!
The ducks and quiet, tranquil life afforded you in “Trevor Basin”.
“Aye-Oop” can be roughly translated as a Northern English expression of “Eh up” meaning a greeting, saying hello or to attract someone’s attention. Or it’s just a beautiful canal boat with a hearty amount of new duck friends!
“A Stream in the Sky”.
View back from whence we came from the “Trevor Basin Footbridge” with the appropriately named “Telford” public house to your left and “Scotch Hall Bridge” framing a quite beautiful piece of bliss.
I know it’s just a long straight aqueduct but it is 126 feet in the sky! More from the official website: “The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2009, as a ‘masterpiece of creative genius’. Thomas Telford’s innovative handling of a difficult geographical setting, using bold engineering solutions, has served as an inspiration for other projects all over the world since the early 19th century.
More from the official website dedicated to this World Heritage Site: “Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal consists of a continuous group of civil engineering features from the heroic phase of transport improvements during the British Industrial Revolution. The canal brought water borne transport from the English lowlands into the rugged terrain of the Welsh uplands, using innovative techniques to cross two major river valleys and the ridge between them”.
Commemorative Stone at the entrance to the aqueduct.
More from the official website: “It was built between 1795 and 1808 by two outstanding figures in the development of civil engineering: Thomas Telford and William Jessop. Through their dynamic relationship the canal became a testing ground for new ideas that were carried forward into subsequent engineering practice internationally”.
Again from the official website: “Pontcysyllte Aqueduct crosses the Dee Valley on nineteen cast iron spans at a height of 126 feet/38.4 metres: a structure recognised internationally as a masterpiece of waterways engineering and a pioneering example of iron construction. The canal exemplifies the new approaches to engineering developed by Britain during the Industrial Revolution and taken up in subsequent waterway, railway and road construction throughout the world. The engineers intervened in the landscape with a new scale and intensity, challenged by the need to cut the waterways across the grain of the Welsh upland topography”.
Please say a hearty hello to “Canadian Bill”, found in the quaint village of Froncysyllte after crossing the aqueduct.
Froncysyllte and the canal bend and return to the aqueduct.
Simple beautiful reflections.
As if on cue and a “perfect timing” moment with which to gage the entirety of the aqueduct — Part 1.
As if on cue and a “perfect timing” moment with which to gage the entirety of the aqueduct — Part 2.
As if on cue and a “perfect timing” moment with which to gage the entirety of the aqueduct — Part 3.
No sunshine this morning but this place continues to endlessly fascinate me.
A return view of the basin from “Scotch Hall Bridge”. I cannot recommend this piece of architectural beauty and a trip back in time highly enough!
Your humble narrator, hoping the swans stay away long enough for a lasting memory in front of the Holy Trinity Church of Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon, the day after the day before, 15th September 2022 (Author’s Collection).
Thanks for reading. My “Summer Project” has taken me to the waterways as well as many local historical and religious ruins as I’ve crisscrossed the border between England and Wales, and my three most recently published travel articles are linked below:
