Time and Place: The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal

This documentary program explores the significance and background of one of Britain's great man-made wonders - the Mounmouthshire and Brecon Canal. The program begins by discussing the canal's history. It travels back several hundred years to the United Kingdom of the late 18th century - a time and place that witnessed one of the great industrial revolutions. The film tells how the shift began in the legendary South Wales Valleys, where the abundance of five key elements - wood, iron, coal, ore and limestone, all in close proximity to one another -- fostered the creation of iron and in turn, a new iron age. Purveyors then needed a way to transport the iron to the sea, and the Monmouthshire Canal Company filled the gap by obtaining parliamentary consent for a canal. A competitor then cropped up in the form of the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal Company, and a second canal was born; in time, both canals were merged into one to become the Mouunmouthshire and Brecon. After canvassing this history, the film then discusses the canal's status today - the continuing navigability of a large stretch of it, and the plan of British Waterways to reopen yet another stretch between Five Locks, Cwmbran and Newport.