Burry Port Harbour
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Burry Port Harbour is a former industrial harbour which mainly served the coal industry, on the
Loughor Loughor (; ) is a town in Swansea, Wales. Historic counties of Wales, Historically in Glamorgan, it lies on the estuary of the River Loughor (). The town has a community (Wales), community council under the name Llwchwr. The town is bordered by ...
estuary (Moryd Llwchwr). It is now converted into a marina. The town of
Burry Port Burry Port () is a port town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, on the River Loughor, Loughor estuary (Moryd Llwchwr), to the west of Llanelli and south-east of Kidwelly. Its population was recorded at 5,680 in the 2001 census and 6,156 ...
grew around the harbour.


Origins

The town of Burry Port dates from the nineteenth century although the neighbouring village of
Pembrey Pembrey (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Pen-bre'') is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay, with a population of about 2,154 in 2011. The electoral ward having a population of 4,3 ...
has a history dating back to the medieval period. From the late eighteenth century, the development of small collieries in the area led to the building of a network of canals and then tramways to carry coal from inland mines to the sea. The first of these canals was built by Thomas Kymer and reached the sea at
Kidwelly Kidwelly () is a town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire, southwest Wales, approximately northwest of the most populous town in the county, Llanelli. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census the community had a population ...
and another was built in 1798 by the
Earl of Ashburnham Earl of Ashburnham (pronounced "Ash-''burn''-am"), of Ashburnham in the County of Sussex, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1730 for John Ashburnham, 3rd Baron Ashburnham, who was also created Viscount St Asaph, in Wales. ...
to serve his collieries. Harbour facilities remained basic until Pembrey Harbour was opened in 1819. However, the fairly rapid growth of coal mining in the years following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 resulted in it not being large enough to serve the needs of the mine owners of the Gwendraeth Valley. As a result, with the backing of the Pemberton family and other local landowners an act of Parliament, the ( 6 Geo. 4. c. cxv), was secured to form the Pembrey New Harbour Company. This became known as Burry Port Harbour before it was completed.


Early history

The new harbour opened in 1832 although the harbour walls collapsed soon after leading to a delay in its full operation. It provided a means to transport coal produced in the Gwendraeth Valley out to sea, although it still depended on a complex pattern of inland canals and tramways. Those who invested in the development of the harbour believed that its location offered considerable potential for expansion, as it had an advantage over neighbouring Llanelli Harbour in that vessels did not need to navigate the narrow channel along the Loughor estuary. In June 1838, John H. Browne, clerk to the Burry Port Harbour Company, wrote to the
Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...
newspaper drawing attention to the advantages after an article on port facilities in the South Wales Coalfield failed to refer to Burry Port. Three years later, in 1841, an account of the potential development of the anthracite coalfield to provide fuel for steamships highlighted the potential of Burry Port Harbour to accommodate larger ships than could progress through the narrow channel to the larger port at Llanelli.


Nineteenth-century developments

The town of Burry Port did not exist at this time. The earliest records of the town springing up around the new docks adjacent to Pembrey appear around 1850. The importance of the newly emerging town increased when the railways reached Burry Port. The
station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...
serving both Pembrey and the new town of Burry Port was built a few hundred yards down from Pembrey at Burry Port. The canal network was now unable to handle the loads from the Gwendraeth valley mines and part of the canal network was converted into the
Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway The Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway (BP&GVR) was a mineral railway company that constructed a railway line in Carmarthenshire, Wales, by conversion of a canal, to connect collieries and limestone pits to the sea at Kidwelly. It extend ...
by the late 1860s with the port continuing to grow in importance and shipping volumes. It did not, however, achieve the levels of trade that many had anticipated and went into gradual decline in the twentieth century.


References

{{coord, 51.680924, -4.253086, display=title Ports and harbours of Wales