Abermawr facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Abermawr |
|
|---|---|
 Aber Mawr rocks looking towards Aber Bach |
|
 Abermawr
|
|
| Principal area | |
| Country | Wales |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Dyfed-Powys |
| Fire | Mid and West Wales |
| Ambulance | Welsh |
| EU Parliament | Wales |
Abermawr is a lovely stretch of coastline in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It's a very special place for nature, officially called a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The beach at Abermawr is mostly made of small, smooth stones, with marshy land and woods right behind it.
Many people enjoy walking along the coast here, passing by other interesting spots like Porthgain, Abereiddi, and Abercastle. A big bank of pebbles on the beach was formed by a huge storm way back on October 25, 1859. The ocean currents at Abermawr can be strong, so it's good to be careful. However, the land sticking out into the sea (called headlands) are not very high, which means it's usually not too windy.
Contents
Abermawr's Past
Abermawr has an interesting history, especially with railways and communication cables.
Railway Plans
In the 1840s, a railway company called the South Wales Railway (SWR) wanted to build a train line to the coast. Their goal was to connect London, England, to ships sailing from Great Britain to Ireland and even America. A famous engineer named Isambard Kingdom Brunel was in charge of this project.
At first, Abermawr was considered as the place where the railway would end. But after more surveys, Brunel decided to build the line to a different place called Neyland instead. Even today, you can still see parts of the railway track that were started but never finished near Treffgarne. These parts were abandoned in 1852.
Connecting the World with Cables
Abermawr became very important on July 27, 1866. This is when it became the eastern end of the first successful Transatlantic telegraph cable. A telegraph cable is like a giant underwater telephone wire that sends messages using electrical signals.
Brunel's huge steamship, the Great Eastern, laid this amazing cable across the Atlantic Ocean. It stretched from Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, Canada, all the way to Valentia Island in Ireland. From Ireland, the messages traveled over land and then under the Irish Sea to pop up at Abermawr.
At Abermawr, there was a small hut where telegraph operators worked. They would receive messages from North America and then send them on to London using other telegraph wires. This allowed people in Britain and North America to communicate almost instantly for the very first time!
Another cable was laid in 1880, but it went to a different location. The telegraph station at Abermawr kept working until 1922 or 1923. A big storm damaged the cables, and the station was eventually closed. The hut where the operators worked is still there today and is now a private house.
The Charles Holmes Shipwreck
The big storm in 1859, which created the pebble bank, also caused a terrible shipwreck. A ship called the Charles Holmes, led by Captain C. H. N. Bowlby, was wrecked. Sadly, all 28 people on board lost their lives. You can see Captain Bowlby's gravestone in Granston churchyard.
Wartime Use and Ancient Forests
During World War I, the telegraph site at Abermawr was very useful for communicating with North America. A small group of soldiers guarded it. However, after the storm damage in the early 1920s, the site was abandoned.
If you visit Abermawr when the tide is out, you might be able to see something amazing: evidence of a very old, prehistoric forest that existed thousands of years ago!
Images for kids
-
Rock formations at the beach
.jpg)
