George Overton

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George Overton was a canal and railway engineer from Llanelly, South Wales. He was born in 1774 and died in 1827.

He moved to Llanddetty in the late 1790s as a mining engineer and industrialist.

In the early 1800s he built the famous Penydarren Tramroad near Merthyr Tydfil on which Richard Trevithick's locomotive ran - the first in the World.

In 1811 he was appointed resident engineer on the Aberdare Canal.

In 1815 the 12 mile Bryn-oer Tramroad from the Bryn-oer colliery  to the Monmouthshire Brecon & Abergavenny Canal at Tal-y-bont was opened, George Overton had been the engineer for the work and a joint leasee after it was opened. At the same time he was engineer for the projected Stockton & Darlington Railway.

 In 1821  He reported on the improvements needed for better accommodation of the increasing trade on the Glamorganshire Canal, proposing canal deepening, straightening and a new basin so that 300-ton vessels could reach the wharves at the port of Cardiff.

In 1823 He marked out a 15 mile extension of the Penydarren tramroad to Cardiff. This was on the other side of the valley to the Glamorganshire Canal. The tramroad was never extended but later the route was used by the Taff Vale Railway.