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The River Cleddau () consists of the Eastern and Western Cleddau rivers in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. They unite to form the Daugleddau estuary and the harbour of Milford Haven Waterway.
The name of the combined estuary – the Daugleddau – means “the two Cleddaus”.Charles, B. G, The Placenames of Pembrokeshire, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1992, Vol 1, pp. 6–7 The name Cleddau, whilst seeming to be a plural ('-au' generally denotes plurality in Welsh language) comes from the Welsh word cleddyf meaning 'sword' and refers perhaps to the manner in which both rivers are incised into the landscape of Pembrokeshire.Owen, H. W. & Morgan, R. 2007 Dictionary of the Place-names of Wales Gomer Press, Ceredigion A number of former Anglican parishes in the area have been combined to form the modern Church in Wales parish of Daugleddau in the Diocese of St Davids.
The Western Cleddau is an example of a misfit stream: the valley is deep, although the stream that flows in it is small. The valley was formed at the end of the last Ice Age, when the River Teifi, swollen with melt waters, was prevented from flowing into the Irish Sea by an ice dam, and flowed instead westward through the valleys of the Afon Nyfer and River Gwaun, then south along the course of the Western Cleddau.
Historically, the tidal estuary enabled sea traffic to reach Haverfordwest. It was important also for the export of anthracite, which was mined on its west bank and shipped from Hook.
Historically, the estuary gave seaborne access to castles such as Pembroke Castle and Carew Castle, allowing these to be used as depots in the Norman invasion of Ireland. It was important in the early Industrial Revolution, shipping anthracite from Llangwm, Landshipping and Crescelly, and limestone from Lawrenny and West Williamston. A small fishing industry operated from harbours such as Pill, Angle and Dale, George, Barbara J; Pembrokeshire Sea Trading Before 1900 Field Studies Journal; Pg, 5-6; Retrieved 19 January 2010 but in 1790 the building of the new town of Milford commenced, BBC South West Wales website 'A Brief History of Milford', Jon Gower Retrieved 19 January 2010 and a large herring fishery grew up based on its docks. Pembrokeshire Record Office, from 'Archives Network Wales' Retrieved 30 January 2010 In its heyday, it became the UK's seventh largest fishing port, operating several hundred , but with exhaustion of inshore fishing grounds, the docks were too small for large ocean-going trawlers, and fishing is now virtually totally non-existent. Milford was originally built for a naval dockyard, but this project was transferred in 1814 to Pembroke Dock on the opposite side of the estuary, Extract from Bartholomew, John (1887) 'Gazetteer of the British Isles' from Vision of Britain.org] Retrieved 30 January 2010 where it operated until closure in 1926. The town of Neyland, originally known as New Milford, was also purpose-built, this time by the Great Western Railway as a transatlantic shipping terminal. Its functions were largely transferred to Fishguard in the early 20th century.
The Cleddau rivers are also a Special Area of Conservation designated for the European bullhead ( Cottus gobio), European river lamprey ( Lampetra fluviatilis), Brook lamprey ( Lampetra planeri), Otter ( Lutra lutra), Sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus); rivers with floating vegetation often dominated by Ranunculus (watercourses of plain to Montane ecology levels with the Ranunculion fluitantis and Callitricho-Batrachionvegetation); active raised ; and Alder woodlands on (Alluvial plain forests with Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior (Alno-Padion, Alnion incanae, Salicion albae)).
Additionally, land around a north-eastern tributary of the Eastern Cleddau, Gweunydd Blaencleddau, is designated as a Special Area of Conservation for habitats including: calcium-rich springwater-fed - Alkaline fens; the southern damselfly ( Coenagrion mercuriale), Marsh fritillary Euphydryas (Eurodryas, Hypodryas) aurinia; purple moor-grass meadows - molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils ( Molinion caeruleae); wet with cross-leaved heath Rhostiroedd gwlyb – Northern Atlantic wet heaths with Erica tetralix; very wet often identified by an unstable 'quaking' surface – transition mires and quaking bogs; and blanket bogs.
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