History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy

	History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network
Cable Station, Abermawr, Wales by Bill Glover

ABERMAWR CABLE STATION

Abermawr, where the two cables came ashore

The first cable to land at Abermawr, Wales (anglicized to Abermaur), a bay on the coast of Pembrokeshire near Mathry, was laid in 1862. The core was manufactured by the Gutta Percha Company with the armouring being added by Glass Elliot & Company, who were also responsible for the installation.

The 63 nm cable which ran from Abermawr to Wexford, Ireland, was laid by CS Berwick for the Electric & International Telegraph Company. It was taken over by the GPO in 1870 when the inland telegraph service was nationalised. A second cable was laid in 1880 this time for the GPO and ran from Blackwater, Ireland to Abermawr.

The marker shows the location of Abermawr
and its proximity to Wexford, Ireland.
Map image courtesy of and © Google Maps

In the corrugated iron cable hut at Abermawr were two rows of wooden benches along two sides, on which the telegraph instruments were placed. Messages received from Ireland were retransmitted over lines to the London office of the cable company (see illustration below), from where they would be sent on to their final destination. A three tier bunk at the rear of the hut provided the sleeping quarters for the telegraph clerks.

The cottage and hut at Abermawr

In the first World War, because of its importance in providing a link to North America, the station was guarded by a small unit of soldiers, who used the road outside as their parade ground. As well as the garden walls the two buildings were surrounded by a wall of sandbags, villagers from St Nicholas being employed in building it.

In 1922 or 23 a storm washed away the road above the beach at Abermawr and with it the shore ends of the two cables. Following this the station was abandoned and the hut and cottage were returned to the Tregwynt estate, on whose land it stood. From this it can be assumed that the hut and cottage were not built when the first cable was landed but were rented from the Tregwynt estate, and were most likely a cottage and storage for a tenant farmer. Following its abandonment it was used as a bathing hut, mainly by GPO employees and former employees.


Front and rear views of the cottage and hut

In 1951 Les and Nora Lane from London visited the area on holiday with their children and took a fancy to the hut, though at the time it was derelict. They approached Lt. Commander Harries Burrington, who at that time owned the estate, and were able to rent the hut at £15 a year. Subsequently they bought it and renovated it, turning it into a residential property and using it for holidays and family occasions. It is now let out as holiday accommodation.

ELECTRIC & INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH COMPANY

The new Telegraph Room in Bell Alley, Moorgate, London. All outgoing inland telegrams are despatched from this room. Foreign telegrams are dealt with in a separate room and incoming telegrams are received in the company’s original building. The two adjacent buildings are connected by pneumatic tubes for the transmission of messages between the two.

Last revised: 10 August, 2008

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Research Material Needed

The Atlantic Cable website is non-commercial, and its mission is to make available on line as much information as possible.

You can help - if you have cable material, old or new, please contact me. Cable samples, instruments, documents, brochures, souvenir books, photographs, family stories, all are valuable to researchers and historians.

If you have any cable-related items that you could photograph, copy, scan, loan, or sell, please email me: billb@ftldesign.com