Today, Watkin George is remembered for his contribution to the development of early iron bridges. His works include the world's oldest-known cast iron tramway bridge, Pont y Cafnau (1792-3) over the River Taff at Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. It served the Cyfarthfa Ironworks (est.1765), where George's technical advice helped expand the business. By 1806, it was the largest ironworks in the world.

George began his working life as a village carpenter but was soon indispensable to local ironmasters through his expertise with metal structures. His skills earned him well-paid positions in Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypool, where his ideas for streamlining production in ironworks were well received. As well as bridges, his works include water pumps, water wheels, aqueducts and machinery — and all are in Wales.

Little is known of George's childhood, and unfortunately almost nothing of his character. He emerges in his thirties, when his name is linked to the design of cast iron beam-frame bridges over the Glamorganshire Canal (built 1790-4), used for transporting iron south from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff docks.

He was foundry manager at Cyfarthfa Ironworks, where Henry Cort's (c.1741-1800) reverbatory puddling furnace was developed and used — refining ore to produce iron with fewer impurities than by other methods. In 1792, Cyfarthfa's then owner, ironmaster Richard Crawshay (1739-1810), took George into partnership.

One of his first projects as partner was Pont y Cafnau (Bridge of Troughs), a combined tramroad and enclosed aqueduct built to supply the works with limestone and water. Though cast in iron, its structural design uses A-frames rather than the arches used for earlier iron bridges (such as Iron Bridge (1781), Shropshire). The bridge is still in place, though now only used by pedestrians. The remains of the tramway rails can still be seen.

Not long afterwards, George was responsible for a much larger timber aqueduct at the same spot. It spanned the River Taff high above the cast iron bridge and provided water to power a 15m diameter waterwheel, used to work an air pump for blowing the iron smelting furnaces. He later designed Crawshay's Ynysfach Ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil.

In about 1805, having helped Cyfarthfa Ironworks expand, George left the partnership. Reports vary on the amount of money he amassed for his 13 years of service, either £40,000 or £100,000 — "equal to one share". He joined Pontypool Ironworks as partner to its owners Capel Hanbury Leigh (1776-1861) and Robert Smith, restructuring the works and making great improvements to balling and refinery operations.

George's last known work dates from 1811 — a cast iron bridge to cross the River Wye on the existing piers at Chepstow. He died 11 years later, aged 63.

c1759	Born in the village of Trevethin (Trefddyn), north of Pontypool, son of Watkin George senior (d.1787)
1789	Marries (20th September) Anne Jenkins (1760-1845) at Llanhiledd, west of Pontypool, and they will have at least two children: Hannah (b.1793) and Watkin (b.1795)
c1790-94	Possibly working on iron girder bridge(s) over Glamorganshire Canal
1792	Becomes a partner to Richard Crawshay at Cyfarthfa Ironworks
1792-93	Constructs Pont y Cafnau, a combined tramway and aqueduct bridge, now a Scheduled Ancient Monument
1793-96	Works on Gwynne Water Aqueduct, a timber trestle structure 185m long that ran over the top of Pont y Cafnau
1793-97	Designs Aeolus waterwheel at Cyfarthfa Ironworks (15.2m diameter, 1.8m wide, 156 buckets, cast iron with additional timber spokes, developed 37.3kW (50hp), used 25.4 tonnes of water/min, said to have cost £4,000 and equalled the power of a Bolton & Watt engine in use, replaced early C19th by a steam engine)
1799-1800	Constructs Ynysgau Bridge (Old Iron Bridge, Merthyr Tydfil, dismantled 1963), commissioned by Richard Crawshay
1801	Designs Ynysfach Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, constructed by Thomas Jones of Merthyr Tydfil, including two steam-powered blast furnaces
c.1805	Joins Pontypool Ironworks as a partner, undertakes restructuring, including the demolition of the wire works at Pontymoel (1808), builds a large waterwheel and tinplate works at Pontymoel and two tinplate works at Lower Mill (1815)
1811	Prepares a design for Chepstow Bridge — a series of cast iron spans on the existing (c.1704) piers, not adopted (present Chepstow Bridge designed by John Urpeth Rastrick)
1822	Dies 10th August, buried two weeks later at St Cadoc's churchyard, Trevethin

Iron girder bridges, Glamorganshire Canal, Wales, UK .... c.1790-1794
Melingriffith Water Pump (probably), Whitchurch, Cardiff, Wales, UK .... c.1793-1795
Pont y Cafnau, River Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK .... 1793-c.1796
Gwynne Water Aqueduct, River Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK .... 1793-1796
Aeolus Waterwheel, Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK .... 1793-1797
Ynysgau Bridge, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, UK .... 1799-1800
Ynysfach Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, U .... 1801
Chepstow Bridge scheme, River Wye, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK .... 1811

Alec Skempton ed., George, Watkin (fl.1790-1811), A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 1: 1500-1830, Thomas Telford Publishing Limited, Institution of Civil Engineers, London, pp.247

Stephen K. Jones, Celebrating Pont-y-Cafnau, Cast-Iron Bridge and Aqueduct, in ICE Panel for Historical Engineering Works Newsletter, Number 132, London, December 2011

Stephen Hughes, The Archaeology of an Early Railway System: The Brecon Forest Tramroads, Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, 1990

Benjamin Heath Malkin, The Scenery, Antiquities, and Biography of South Wales, from Materials collected during two Excursions in the Year 1803, 2nd edn, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London, 1807

Thomas Rees, The Beauties of England and Wales: South Wales, Vol.XVII, London, 1815

Charles Wilkins, History of the Iron, Steel, Tinplate and Other Trades of Wales, Cambridge University Press, January 2011

http://yba.llgc.org.uk

www.alangeorge.co.uk

www.archiveswales.org.uk

www.coflein.gov.uk

www.ice.org.uk

www.pontypool.bravepages.com