Cob

From Festipedia, hosted by the FR Heritage Group


Cob
Long shot from above the works
Previous Station	Harbour Station
Previous Location	Minffordd Crossing
Status	Location
Next Location	Pen Cob Halt
Next Location	Boston Lodge
Next Station	Boston Lodge Halt
Stations Locations	Harbour Station

The Cob is a big embankment, designed to hold back the sea so that a large area of land could be reclaimed from the Glaslyn estuary. It was built by William Alexander Madocks between 1808 & 1811. He was the Member of Parliament for Boston in Lincolnshire, and that is why the FR works is called Boston Lodge. This project bankrupted him and when the embankment was breached in 1814, others had to help to repair it. In addition to land reclamation, the Cob was intended as a safe route across Traeth Mawr which would have been part of a route from England to Porth Dinllaen, an unsuccessful rival to Holyhead for traffic to and from Ireland.

1811 Constructed original upper cob as roadway

1836 lower roadway constructed as part of mitigating works for construction of FR

1865 wall between upper and lower cob erected to prevent locos frightening horse traffic

1936-40 repairs and strengthening to seaward side following damge in the 1920's also low parapet built on seaward side

At some point prior to 2000 the following approximate dimensions were stated as 21 feet above sea level, 18 ft wide at the top, 90 ft wide at the base, and from Boston Lodge curve to Britannia Bridge is approximately 1660 yds, or just over 1.5 km

In 2002 the road was widened and a cycleway / footpath installed on the landward side, this forming an important part of the national cycle route, Lôn Las Cymru.

For much of its existence a toll was levied on traffic crossing the Cob. This was ended in March 2003. For more detail on the history of the toll, go to the BBC's site.