Volume Ten - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Even more aspects - The Chronology of the Proposed Ely Branch : 1834 to 1851 . . .

This bridge will be a fine structure, of solid masonry, having a centre arch of 104 feet span, with side arches of 20 feet each. The ceremony was opened by J. J. Guest, Esq., M.P., Chairman to the Board of Directs, who congratulated the company on the commencement of an undertaking in which capital of more than a quarter of a million was invested, which had encountered great opposition, and after triumphing over all opponents, was now about to open the vast resources of mineral wealth in the district, and to diffuse countless advantages to the community throughout its whole extent. He hoped the work would make not only a prosperous but a speedy progress.

Mr. Guest then read the following inscription, which was afterwards enclosed in a glass bottle, and placed in a cavity prepared for it underneath the stone:—

" The first stone of this bridge was laid by Lady Charlotte Guest, on the 16th of August, 1837, in the first year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland."

Mr. Guest observed that he could not pronounce the name of our gracious Queen, without proposing three hearty cheers for her Majesty, which were given with a zeal and effect which made the wooded hills and rocks around echo in grand chorus. Lady Charlotte then proceeded to smooth the mortar with a trowel, placed in her hands by Mr. Bush, the engineer, and the stone was turned into its place, bedded on the solid rock, amidst the shouts of the spectators, and the discharge of artillery from the surrounding heights.

A few glasses of wine were then pledged to the success of the undertaking, and her ladyship taking her stand upon the stone, addressed a few words to those, immediately around her, expressing the deep satisfaction which she felt at having laid the first stone of so important an undertaking, and wishing success to it and all engaged in it. This brief but pertinent address was received with loud and reiterated plandits.

Mr. Waring, as one of the Directors, then congratulated his brother officers, and the other proprietors on the smiling auspices under which their great undertaking had been that day commenced, and proposed three cheers more for the fair and noble mason who had just done them the honour of laying the first foundation stone of the Taff Vale Railway.