Mackworth's Canal

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Sir Humphrey Mackworth canalised the tidal Melyncryddan Pill (Pill = Anglo-Saxon, means a "creek" or "inlet" off a river or channel or a small harbour, often tidal and occasionally used as a dock), which ran from the River Neath towards his copper works at Melyncryddan, not far from the town of Neath in South Wales.
The tidal cut was approx. 300 yards long, and approx. 20 feet wide and it could take sea going ships of up to 30 tons.
Soon after construction, heavy floodgates were fitted converting part of the cut into a dock.
A wooden railed wagon-way ran for about 400 yards from the dock into the copper works.
The cut and the dock were disused by 1720 as shown on O'Connor's map of that date and were replaced by a cartway, which ran from an ore wharf on the River Neath into the copper works as shown on Wm. Jones' map of 1766.