Richard Turner-Thomas has published Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Restoration a book about the major restoration of the famous aqueduct last winter. It's a big A4-size thingy (the book, not the aqueduct), including lots of lovely colour pictures in case you can't read. It's available by mail order here, for £10, including P&P (£13 overseas). Helpfully for more web-savvy types, you can even pay via PayPal.
Richard was the BW Site Supervisor for the project, the biggest restoration of the aqueduct for many years. The 'Ponty' counts as one of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways, but with its outre Celtic spelling it also ranks in my book as one of The Great Wonders of Dyslexia.
I spent the last two months of last year on the Llangollen Canal, but because of the restoration Granny Buttons was unable to cross the Pontcysllte Aqueduct and had to pull up short at Froncysllte (there's another candidate!) for a week.
But, afoot, I wandered down the valley and up again, photographing this splendid structure (including a marvellously surrealistic view with sofas) and walking the towpath up to Llangollen itself. Granny Buttons herself must wait for another year, another time, to complete the trip across the valley of the River Dee.
Incidentally, if you haven't already got a PayPal account, you really ought to get one. You could try the alternative (and British-owned and sterling-oriented) Nochex, but Ebay-owned PayPal is steamrollering it. I ordered my copy of this book via PayPal, and it took me less than thirty seconds. And that included typing in a request to the author to sign the book to 'Granny Buttons'.
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