Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Posted by Martin R on July 22, 2010
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The Department of History and Archaeology in Chester is moving from their lovely but run-down Georgian building at the north city gate to the main campus. So I spent most of today helping with the move: shifting finds from a Tudor manor site at Stokenham in Devon and excavation gear. On our way to the excavation site we then stopped to check out the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, an amazing 195-year-old piece of hydraulic engineering where a transportation canal has been made to cross a river 38 metres above its surface. The afternoon’s fieldwork was interrupted and finally cut short by torrential rain, but I had the time to metal detect a new trench out in the ploughed field beside the barrow, and found a piece of a line-decorated lead object. Then back to Gwersyllt for some excellent Bengali food delivered to the door and an unsuccessful attempt to find a geocache near the railway station.

Photograph by Akke Monasso from Wikipedia.

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Comments

  1. #1 Origuy
    July 22, 2010

    OT: The New York Times site has an interactive map showing interesting archeological sites in New York City. I thought it was a nice way to present the information.

    Sometime I must make it to Wales. *sigh*

  2. #2 Thadd
    July 23, 2010

    For a second I thought I was reading a different blog, and that you were talking about the Paulinskill Viaduct in NJ (which also has a town called Chester).

  3. #3 codero
    July 23, 2010

    What have the Romans, er, Georgians ever done for us? :)

  4. #4 Deborah
    July 23, 2010

    I have visited Chester, back when I was a student backpacking around the British Isles, and if I head over to The Frontal Cortex (unfortunately no longer on SB), maybe I will learn why I have NO MEMORY of this aqueduct.

  5. #5 Martin R
    July 24, 2010

    It’s half an hour from Chester by car, on the other side of the Welsh border.

  6. #6 chris y
    July 24, 2010

    I walked over that aqueduct last month. It’s worth going out of your way for.