Well Hello and welcome in today's video, i'll be looking at
Porthcawl Harbour and its history in a bit more detail
as you walk around the area if you look carefully
there are still many remnants from its industrial past
and its glory days of the 1860s and 1870s
but before I look at some of these features in a bit more detail
I'll give you a brief history of the harbour itself
well this was the original harbor built in 1828
it later became the outer basin for the extended docks built later
it was built in 1828 following an act of parliament in 1825
which allowed the building of the Llynfi Valley horse down tram
and the docks themselves which gave an outlet
for the coal and iron from the Llynfi valley
well the original harbor dating from 1828
was a rectangular tidal basin the north side
was open to the bay itself and the original entrance for the ships
was in the eastern wall over there
one of the few buildings which remain from the early days of Porthcawl Harbour
is the warehouse known as the Jennings building
it was built in the 1830s and stood on the quayside of the new harbour
the docks were further developed in the 1840s
but the main expansion came in the 1860s by John Brogdon and sons a large inner
7.5 acre harbour was constructed with access
via lock gates from the original harbour which then
became the outer basin
the original harbour entrance which was sited
in the eastern wall was moved to the southern wall
where it still stands today and the original breakwater
was extended by a hundred yards
this new harbour opened on the 22nd of July
1867.
well just to give you some idea what impact that new harbour redevelopment
had back in 1864 seventeen thousand tons of
coal passed through Porthcawl by 1871 that figure had jumped to
a hundred and sixty-five thousand tons of coal and by
1874, 700 ships a year were docking in the new Porthcawl harbour
however the opening of Barry docks and Port Talbot docks in 1898
provided bigger and better facilities and much safer access for the ships
their opening resulted in an immediate reduction in business for Porthcawl
harbour and the docks finally closed in 1906
so I'm filming this over a few days so if you notice the change in weather
a change in tone you know why one of the reasons is because I'm
looking at some of the original features which you only can see at low tide and
this morning it's high tide but what it does
illustrate is how extreme the tidal ranges of the
bristol channel if you look behind me the lock gates
there the water's nearly up to the top and the mark on the side is showing 23
feet if you look at the shots i filmed a few
days ago at low tides have a look at these
and that range that tidal range that happens twice a day
well in 1914 following the closure of Porthcawl docks
they started to fill in the inner harbour but because of the outbreak of world war
one that was abandoned and that became salt
lake bathing pool throughout the 1920s and 1930s it was
finally filled in during world war ii and that became
what it is today salt lake car park
so as mentioned I've been filming this over a couple of days, the reason being
one it's been very wet and two there are a few things you only can see at
low tide so let's get started and the first thing
we can have a look at is Porthcawl pier.
well the original pier was very much shorter than what we see today
on the pier itself you can find a section
of the original horse drawn tram road which used to carry the coal
i think the original pier was intended to be longer
but the company ran out of money it was actually extended
by a hundred yards in the 1860s and the lighthouse at the very end
that was finished in 1866 this picture from 1865 shows the pier
extension near completion you can see the wooden
frame made out of timber from the Forest of Dean
and the stone facing the concrete reinforcement you can see
there today that was put up in the 1970s
as you can see the inner side of the pier is made up of three tiers you've
got the lower tier which is made up of, made out of stone
and at low tide you can see where it's been patched up over the years
you've got the second tier and that's where you can find a section
of the original horse-drawn tramway and then you've got the top tier which
is quite thin it's like a sea wall and there's a walkway along the top as
well
Records show there was actually a narrow slipway here
well before the 1880s but the current version, the wider version
that was extended during world war II by the RAF air sea rescue unit which was
based in Porthcawl at the side of the slipway, you can see
where they used bags that must've been filled with dry concrete
and obviously when it's set you can still see the shapes of the bags
here
the lighthouse you can see at the end of the pier dates from 1866
the cast iron hexagonal tower sits on a stone plinth
the original lantern was replaced in 1911
to the current round one you can see now and the whole structure
is about nine metres in height it was originally powered by
gas and it wasn't actually converted to electric
until 1997. this little building at the start of the
pier is the old custom house and it's believed to date from 1867
it was used for levying duty on imports including timber which they
used for pit props in the mines if you look
really carefully at the sandstone brickwork, you can see
how weathered it's become it's really heavily
weathered
as I mentioned in a previous video this stretch of coast is very very dangerous
there's been many shipwrecks in the area the first coast guard service in
Porthcawl dates from the 1830s however this
lookout tower is believed to date from the
redevelopment of the harbour in 1867 it appears on the first edition
of the OS map dated 1885 the grade two listed Jennings buildings
there that was built in 1832 by James Allan he
was the proprietor of Duffryn Spelter works and it was the
south terminus of the Duffryn Llynfi
horse-drawn tramroad and it's the only building that survives
from the original harbour development, on the 1846
tythe map the building is simply described as a warehouse belonging to
the Llynfi iron company the name Jennings doesn't actually occur
until 1911 when it was used by the Jennings and co
timber importers during world war II the RAF air sea rescue
unit used it as a base but when I was growing up in the 70s and
80s the building was a bit of a mess, it was
run down I think the council had a depot there
and in the 90s again it was a indoor skate park
but the building was a bit you know a bit of a mess.
but luckily it's now been redeveloped there are apartments on the first floor
and on the ground floor, they've got a pizza restaurant
a restaurant and bar, coffee shop so it's actually useful now somewhere to
come.
So this is the harbour as you see today and this used to be the outer basin
for the harbour dated from 1867. if you look at the far wall you can
still see where the lock gate used to be and that used to lead into the seven and
a half acre inner floating harbour.
there are still quite a few of these stone bollards around the harbour
and if you look carefully you can still find quite a few
iron mooring rings on the harbour walls
if you look carefully at the western side of the harbour you can still see
some of the original features there's an old archway there used to be
an opening and has since been blocked up
those steps in the northwest corner are from the original harbour
if you look you can see there's two steps cut out of each block
and below that you can see the natural outcropping rock
I've now made it to Salt lake car park as you can see there's not much here at the moment this was the site
of the inner harbour, the inner floating harbour
which was developed in the 1860s before that
the bay just curved around despite the expansion there was an
increase in traffic through Porthcawl but it never really
fulfilled its potential, entering the harbour
was notoriously difficult the weather along this coast is quite bad as well
which made it even more difficult and the tides, because of the high tides
the extremes with the high and low tides there was a very small window
where the ships could enter or leave the harbour
it was only a matter of time before Porthcawl lost out
to the harbours being developed at Port Talbot and Barry Docks
I think I mentioned earlier the inner harbour
started to be filled in in 1914 but it stopped because of world war one
and this area then became a boating lake and a swimming lake hence the name
salt lake, it was finally filled in during world war II
and since that date it's been known as salt lake car park
and it's just a bit of waste ground really
it only ever gets used during the summer months and busy bank holidays
the rest of the time and all the time i lived here
it's this
like most towns there's arguments they can't decide what to do
with the place and I'm pretty sure long after I'm gone
they'll still be arguing what to do with the place
that was a look at Porthcawl Harbor and its history
and if you want to see more of old Porthcawl have a look at the video that's
coming up at the end Porthcawl then and now, you look at
places around the town and how they have changed over time
alternatively if you want to see more of myself
and Mel have a look at one of our other travel videos
we travel all over the world from Tenby and West Wales all the way to Las Vegas
and Santa Monica California so we'll see you in one of those, so bye for
now