The company having nearly completed their first plan, applied in 1798 for 'An Act for extending the Neath Canal Navigation, and for amending an Act, passed in the Thirty-first of his present Majesty, for making the said Canal,' by which they had authority to continue the canal from the town of Neath to Giant's Grave Pill, in the parish of Briton Ferry, and to make and build all necessary inclined planes, collateral cuts, warehouses and wharfs, with certain restrictions, on behalf of certain proprietors of estates on the line. There is a remarkable clause in the act which is this, that the warehousing rates shall be the same as those charged by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Company at Stourport.
This canal commencing near Abernant, is about fourteen miles long; at its head there are two short railways, branching off to the mines on the east and west of Abernant House, which is situated in the fork made by them. The canal proceeds parallel to the River Neath in a south-west direction, leaving Maesgwn and Rheola on the west, and Melincourt Furnaces on the east; at the commencement it is considerably elevated, but falls considerably in its progress to Neath River Harbour. A few miles above Neath the canal has a branch to the west, with which the Aberdulais Railway communicates, as do also two other railroads from copper works on the same side of the canal. The main branch continues its course to Neath, where the two branches communicate and are crossed by the turnpike-road; they then run parallel on opposite sides of the river to their termination - the main canal in the Neath River, the branch to its union with the short canal called the Briton Canal, at Briton Ferry House, near Giant's Grave Pill. This canal was within two miles of its completion in 1798. Its object is the export of coals, iron, copper, limestone and other produce of the mines which abound in its vicinity.
The act for the Neath River and Harbour not coming within the design of an account of inland navigation, need not be noticed here, further than stating it to be the termination of the main line of the Neath Canal; the other branch ending at the Briton Canal, which communicates with Swansea Harbour.
