Llanover boat house

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button_lang_welshLink to French translationLlanover boat house

Across the canal from the towpath, just to the north of Llanover Bridge, stands a boat house. The original boat house belonged to Benjamin Waddington, who had acquired nearby Tŷ Uchaf and its grounds in the 1790s.

He was a backer of the new Brecknock & Abergavenny Canal and was quick to acquire his own boat so that he could travel along it. In February 1812, the canal’s 12-man management company came to “Mr Waddington’s boat house in Llanover, met him, and embarked there on board his boat”. They went downstream to view the newly completed works at Pontymoile which connected the canal to the Monmouthshire Canal – enabling goods to travel by boat from Brecon to the sea at Newport and vice versa.

llanover_augusta_hallBenjamin Waddington died in 1828 and the Llanover Estate passed to his daughter Augusta and her husband Benjamin Hall, MP for Monmouth District of Boroughs and later Marylebone (London). The clock tower at the Palace of Westminster was installed while he was commissioner for works, and the great bell in the tower was named “Big Ben” in his honour.

He and Augusta commissioned the construction of Llanover House in the 1830s as their home and as a centre for preservation of the Welsh language and culture. The house was demolished a century later.

Augusta gained the nickname “Gwenynen Gwent” (the bee of Gwent) for her untiring work to preserve and promote Welsh traditions including eisteddfodau, the ancient Mabinogi legends and the triple harp. She revived the custom of wealthy families employing a harpist, starting with the renowned John Wood Jones. He came from a musical gypsy family and was christened near Harlech in 1800.

Picture of fisherwoman in Welsh costume c.1900Lady Llanover also won widespread acceptance for what she regarded as the Welsh national costume, pictured as worn by a “fisherwoman” c.1900. Since then, generations of Welsh girls have worn tall black hats and shawls to school on St David’s Day.

There is more about Lady Llanover on our page about the Eisteddfod stones in Abergavenny. The picture of her is from a portrait painted by Charles Augustus Mornewick.

The navigable section of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal is looked after by the charity Glandwr Cymru the Canal & River Trust in Wales.

With thanks to the archive of the Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust

View Location Map

Canal & River Trust website – Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal

Monmouthshire, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust website

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