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Brecknock Boat Company Yard and Barn, Brecon

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NPRN85500
Map ReferenceSO02NW
Grid ReferenceSO0475028200
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPowys
Old CountyBrecknockshire
CommunityBrecon
Type Of SiteWHARF
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Former yard and covered wharf of the Brecknock Boat Company; the wharf seems to have been a rectangular piece of ground with an access roadway (called 'Conway Terrace' at its northern end) running along its north-western side from the Watton at the north-east to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal on the south-west. The wharf was established by the Brecon Boat Company on land leased from the Cock and Horse public house at the time the canal was built in December 1800.

At the canal-end of the plot an indented turning and unloading basin was built using the full width of the plot with a straight unloading wall alongside the access lane from the Watton. By the 1870s (OS Ist ed. 25" map) a single-boat covered unloading dock had been extended north alongside the lane. By about 1816 an early railway branch with flanged rails had built along the wharf access road from the terminus of the Hay Railway 500m to the east. The lane itself (especially with a railway along part of its width) would not have provided enough room for the yard of the company and the form of the basin indicates that it was built by, or with the consent, of the owner of the rectangular piece of land, on the south-east side of the access road and it seems probable that this formed part of the Boat Company's lease. The fact that the part of the property north-east of the barn was used as a coal yard suggests a continuance in use from the earlier canal-wharf of the boat company.

The principle building on the wharf is a former barn and cartshed constructed of local purple-grey, red and yellow sandstone. It stands near the north-eastern (town - the Watton) side of the wharf area, against its north-eastern boundary as shown on the 1870s Ordnance Survey map, although the fact that it once had central doorways to the threshing area in the centre indicates that the wharf area extended to the wall halfway between the barn and the properties on the Watton. It may have been constructed at about the same time as the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal which was completed to Brecon in December 1800, or may pre-date it, and is shown on John Wood's 'Plan of Brecknock' of 1834. The grain stored in the barn may have been brought in by water and used to feed the many haulage-horses of the company and/or threshed to supply the bakers in Brecon: there is no evidence of a farmyard on this site. The south-east part of this building was a five bay barn and their are ventilation slits on either side of the central opening. Alternatively the Boat Company may also have re-used all or part of this building as a warehouse and store. The part of this building-range to the north-west of the barn was a two storey double cart-shed (and probable hay loft) that may well have been for Boat Company vehicles servicing the wharf and town.

The basin is now filled-in and it and the wharf used for other purposes.

RCAHMW 14.03.2009 citing reports on the site in the archive by David Percival (14.11.1995) and Dr. Barrie Trinder (01.1996).