The five metal canal boats, or barges, which have been lying on the sea side base of the eastern breakwater of Burry Port Harbour, were used on the Kidwelly & Llanelly Canal which ran from Cwm Mawr, in the upper Gwendraeth Valley, to the harbour at Burry Port, a distance of about 11 to 13 miles. This canal was operational by 1837, but by 1869, the canal has been converted to the Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway, which continued to carry coal until 1983 – 114 years of railway history.
The five boats are believed to have been deposited in their present position in 1922 when the Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway was incorporated in the Great Western Railway (G.W.R.), under the Government’s post First World War rationalisation plan. Probably, their new reluctant owners regarded them as unsightly and unwelcome cast-offs of a by-gone transport age.
Whilst permission was granted, and the necessary heavy machinery and equipment promised, to remove one to the Pembrey Country Park, and another to the Kidwelly Industrial Museum, due to their prolonged exposure to the weather, the motion of the strong tides, the marine growth and inseparable rock accumulation inside and outside each boat, it was decided that their removal would destroy them.
To the west of the harbour, is the beach that we go to, and some 60 years ago, there would have been an interesting sight!
On the evening of December 1st, 1948, the "Tungeness", a coal-fired Norwegian steel ship of about 1,800 tons, grounded on the Hooper Bank, which is opposite the Plantation or the 12th fairway of the Ashburnham golf links. She had been inward bound in ballast to Llanelli from Belfast, and it was feared that, as she was in such a light state, she might be driven further inshore by the high seas of a south easterly gale. Fortunately, as the tide receded, the ship remained upright; although there was some danger that the ship could capsize as the incoming tide began to lift her. The grounding or stranding, it appears, was due to the Master’s refusal to accept a local pilot to steer the ship to Llanelli, which was highly risky, as he was unfamiliar with the hazards of the Burry Estuary. Although Norwegian owned and crewed, it is believed that the "Tungeness" was formerly a prize of war, commandeered from the German merchant fleet. The only serious damage to the ship was a broken rudder, which occurred as she struck the historically treacherous Hooper Bank. This was the last big ship to be grounded on the Pembrey beach.
The "Tungeness" was finally re-floated by the efforts of three tugs in a high Spring tide at 7 pm, on December 17th 1948 and was immediately towed to Cardiff for repairs.Whilst you may be tempted to paddle across the stream onto this enormous bank of beautiful sand, be aware that the lifeboat has had to be called out on several occasions when tourists have become stranded as the tide came in!
