Today’s Treasures – The Chain Bridge, Berwyn, Llangollen
The first ‘Chain Bridge’ was built in 1817. Although it was made mainly of wood, it had 12 wrought iron chain links which gave the bridge its name.
It was built to carry coal, limestone, slate and iron from the canal wharf across the River Dee from Llantysilio to Berwyn in order to avoid the toll charges across the bridge in Llangollen.
In the early 19th century, the canal was used not only by workers transporting goods, but also visitors coming to see the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – Thomas Telford and William Jessop’s pioneering masterpiece of engineering.
The aqueduct was originally built to carry the Ellesmere Canal across the river Dee as part of the route linking Ruabon and Shropshire to the Mersey but, with the advent of the railways, the canal was never finished. It was built to carry goods but was also an important distributer of water and today remains part of the system which takes drinking water to Hurleston reservoir in Cheshire. In the 1950’s this part of the Ellesmere canal was renamed the Llangollen Canal, and in 2009 it was designated a United Nations World Heritage Site, managed today by the Canal and River Trust.
The Chain Bridge was rebuilt in 1876 and retained its chain links as supports for the deck. In 1929 Sir Henry Beyer Robertson replaced the bridge but used the original chain links from Pickering’s bridge to create 6 suspension cables to hold up the deck with 2 underneath as extra support.
In the 1980’s the bridge was closed as it was unsafe but, in 2015, it was restored by the Llangollen Town Council and Llantysilio Community Council.
Visitors can now get on a steam train from Llangollen to Berwyn station, walk over the bridge to the Chain Bridge Hotel then walk along Thomas Telford’s canal to the Horseshoe Falls and along the river Dee to Llantysilio Church.
#ChainBridge #Berwyn #llangollen #Llantysilio
@UNESCO @CanalandRiverTrust
Published in the March edition of the Whitchurch Gossip