Tonna Homepage


©Chris Shaw
Sited at the old tin works this is actually a modern wheel built within a National Trust project to generate electricity for the site.
©Chris Shaw
Dist:0.1km<br/>The beautifully elegant skew bridge at Aberdulais basin, which is situated at the point where the Neath and Tennant canals divide to reach Briton Ferry and Port Tennant (near Swansea) respectively.
©Robert Davies
Dist:0.2km<br/>The first bridge (from which this picture was taken) is a road bridge providing access to the nearby town of tonna. The next bridge is a railway bridge over the Neath river and then the low bridge is part of the Tennant Canal. In the distance, the main A465 (heads of the valley) dual carriage way crosses the Dulaus tributary followed by the A4230 road (the old road before the newer dual carriageway was built.
©Hywel Williams
Dist:0.2km<br/>
©Stephen Roberts
Dist:0.2km<br/>Each bridge represents a different mode of transport; firstly a canal (now disused), a railway and then a road bridge.
©Hywel Williams
Dist:0.2km<br/>The river Neath is crossed at this point at Aberdulais five times. Three roads, (one being a dual carriageway), a railway and a canal. Visible here is the aqueduct carrying the Tennant canal and behind it is the Vale of Neath railway viaduct. The single story building on the far side of the aqueduct is the canal toll house.
©Robert Davies
Dist:0.2km<br/>Disused set of locks on the Tennant Canal with its redundant aqueduct over the River Neath beyond just before the canal joins the Neath Canal.
©Alan Bowring
Dist:0.3km<br/>Compare the flood conditions in this shot with the drier scene at [[376860]].
©Alan Bowring
Dist:0.3km<br/>Canal Side Aberdulais. The canal ran from Port Tennant harbour, at the mouth of the River Tawe, near Swansea, to Aberdulais Basin where it joined the Neath Canal
©Alan Roberts
Dist:0.3km<br/>From beneath the A465 down the flooding Neath as it sweeps under the disused Tennant Canal aqueduct and the railway viaduct beyond.
©Alan Bowring
Dist:0.3km<br/>The River Dulais runs through a gorge formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Sinkholes were formed by water flowing beneath the glacier and these can still be seen at the site. The falls gave rise to the foundation of one of Britain's oldest industrial sites with corn milling, dying of wool, copper smelting and tin plate making all conducted here over hundreds of years. The first copper smelting works in Wales opened at Aberdulais in 1584. All of this was possible because of the presence of water that could be utilised in its basic form or as a source of power together with availability of other raw materials such as coal and iron. Copper was ‘imported’ across the Bristol Channel from Cornwall.. The natural beauty of the area was appreciated long ago even causing complaint that "A natural cascade called Dyllais was destroyed by an agent to Lord Jersey, the proprietor of the estate, in order to build a few cottages and the lock of a canal. The rock down which this beautiful cascade had flowed from the time of the flood and which has created a scene universally admired was blown up with gunpowder by this man." (Captain R.H. Gronrow 1820) Now a National Trust property, the remains of the tin plate industry site and falls are held in trust for all to enjoy.
©Mick Lobb
Dist:0.3km<br/>Looking upstream from the road bridge on the A4109 at Aberdulais the remains of its predecessor can be seen crossing half the river.
©Nigel Davies
Dist:0.3km<br/>The restored and working waterwheel at Aberdulais Falls, owned and operated by the National Trust
©Fiona Andrew
Dist:0.3km<br/>The River Dulais runs through a gorge formed by glaciers during the last ice age. Sinkholes were formed by water flowing beneath the glacier and these can still be seen at the site. The falls gave rise to the foundation of one of Britain's oldest industrial sites with corn milling, dying of wool, copper smelting and tin plate making all conducted here over hundreds of years. The first copper smelting works in Wales opened at Aberdulais in 1584. All of this was possible because of the presence of water that could be utilised in its basic form or as a source of power together with availability of other raw materials such as coal and iron. Copper was ‘imported’ across the Bristol Channel from Cornwall.. The natural beauty of the area was appreciated long ago even causing complaint that "A natural cascade called Dyllais was destroyed by an agent to Lord Jersey, the proprietor of the estate, in order to build a few cottages and the lock of a canal. The rock down which this beautiful cascade had flowed from the time of the flood and which has created a scene universally admired was blown up with gunpowder by this man." (Captain R.H. Gronrow 1820) Now a National Trust property, the remains of the tin plate industry site and falls are held in trust for all to enjoy.
©Mick Lobb

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]

Members Nearby

Tonna Discussion Forum


Places Near Tonna

Aberdulais • Blaenhonddan • Bryn coch • Bryn-coch • Cadoxton Juxta Neath • Castell-Nedd • Cil-ffriw • Cilfrew • Cimla • Clyne • Efail Fach • Efail-fach • Fforest Goch • Gnoll • Llangatwg • Llantwit • Longford • Melincourt • Melincryddan • Mount Pleasant • Mynachlog Nedd • Neath • Neath Abbey • Rhydding • Rhydings • Tonmawr • Tonna • Ty'n-y-caeau • Y Clun • Ynysarwed •