Ashburnham Canal

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The Ashburnham Canal was a canal in South Wales.

The second Earl Ashburnham, impressed by the success of a canal built by Thomas Kymer in the Gwendraeth valley, decided upon a similar scheme for his Pembrey colliery.

The Ashburnham canal ran from the foot of Pembrey Mountain to the Gwendraeth estuary and its aim was to improve the transport of coal from the Pembrey colliery to the sea.

The plan initially encountered opposition from colliers, whose ponies used to do the job, but by 1796 work on the canal had begun below Coed Farm, close to the Llandyry-Pinged road.
By 1799, the canal had extended across the Kidwelly-Pembrey road, near to Saltrock Farm, and by the end of 1801 it had reached the sea at Pill Towyn, a creek running in from the south bank of the Gwendraeth Fawr river.
Two shipping places were built on the canal, one of them at Pill Ddu, and the total length of the canal was about two miles (3 km).
Flat terrain meant that there were no locks, and in 1805 a short branch was constructed towards Ffrwd when new levels were opened in Coed Rhial.
The entrance to Pill Ddu was deepened in 1816 and a dry dock was added in 1817.

By 1818, however, the colliery had become exhausted and the canal became redundant.