130-477: Aberllefenni quarry is the collective name of three slate quarries , Foel Grochan , Hen Gloddfa (also known as Hen Chwarel ) and Ceunant Ddu , located in Cwm Hengae , just to the west of Aberllefenni , Gwynedd , North Wales . It was the longest continually operated slate mine in the world until its closure in 2003. Foel Grochan is the quarry on the north side of the valley, facing Ceunant Ddu and Hen Gloddfa on
260-522: A tourist attraction . Two new steam locomotives have been built for the railway, in 2005 and 2023. Two of the original locomotives and some of the original rolling stock are preserved on the nearby Talyllyn Railway . The railway has the unusual gauge of 2 ft 3 in ( 686 mm ) which was shared by only three other public railways in the United Kingdom: the Talyllyn Railway and
390-578: A 20% tax on all slate carried coastwise, which put the Welsh producers at a disadvantage compared to inland producers who could use the canal network to distribute their product. There was no tax on slates sent overseas, and exports to the United States gradually increased. The Penrhyn Quarry continued to grow, and in 1799 Greenfield introduced the system of "galleries", huge terraces from 9 metres to 21 metres in depth. In 1798, Lord Penrhyn constructed
520-415: A full service under Dix's energetic management. The railway was widely promoted to visitors as the best route to Tal-y-llyn Lake and Cader Idris (ignoring the claims of the rival Talyllyn Railway). The initial passenger service ran from Machynlleth to Corris , with new stations at Esgairgeiliog and Llwyngwern opening in 1884. The track was upgraded beyond Corris so that passenger services could reach
650-519: A large part of Hamburg in 1842 led to a demand for slate for rebuilding, and Germany became an important market, particularly for Ffestiniog slate. In 1843, the Padarn Railway became the first quarry railway to use steam locomotives, and the transport of slate by train rather than by ship was made easier when the London and North Western Railway built branches to connect Port Penrhyn and Port Dinorwic to
780-399: A lower poundage. The first Monday of every month was "bargain letting day" when these agreements were made between men and management. The men had to pay for their ropes and chains, for tools and for services such as sharpening and repairing. Subs (advances) were paid every week, everything being settled up on the "day of the big pay". If conditions had not been good, the men could end up owing
910-552: A much reduced scale. On 28 July 2021, the slate landscape of northwest Wales was awarded the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site , whilst as early as 2018 Welsh slate was designated by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource . The slate deposits of Wales belong to three geological series: Cambrian , Ordovician and Silurian . The Cambrian deposits run south-west from Conwy to near Criccieth ; these deposits were quarried in
1040-530: A railway changing the company's name to the Corris Railway Company , allowed the use of steam locomotives and allowed the abandonment of the section west of Ffynnon Garsiwn in Machynlleth. In 1863, a new transshipment wharf was built at Machynlleth to allow slate to be loaded from CM&RDT waggons into standard gauge wagons. Passenger and goods trains continued to run to Machynlleth Town station on
1170-618: A restored incline formerly used to carry slate waggons uphill and downhill. In Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Llechwedd Slate Caverns have been converted into a visitor attraction. Visitors can travel on the Miners' Tramway or descend into the Deep Mine, via the steepest cable railway in Europe, to explore this former slate mine and learn how slate was extracted and processed and about the lives of
1300-475: A rotary machine to dress the split slate. The splitting of the blocks to produce roofing slates proved resistant to mechanisation, and continued to be done with a mallet and chisel. An extra source of income from the 1860s was the production of "slab", thicker pieces of slate which were planed and used for many purposes, for example flooring, tombstones and billiard tables . The larger quarries could be highly profitable. The Mining Journal estimated in 1859 that
1430-456: A shipload of slates from Aberogwen, near Bangor, to Rhuddlan to roof a house at Henllan, near Denbigh . The wreck of a wooden ship carrying finished slates was discovered in the Menai Strait and is thought to date from the 16th century. By the second half of the 16th century, there was a small export trade of slates to Ireland from ports such as Beaumaris and Caernarfon. Slate exports from
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#17328697043381560-572: A single quarry. The first steam engine to be used in the slate industry was a pump installed at the Hafodlas quarry in the Nantlle Valley in 1807, but most quarries relied on hydropower to drive machinery. Wales was by now producing more than half the United Kingdom's output of slate, 26,000 tons out of a total UK production of 45,000 tons in 1793. In July 1794, the government imposed
1690-414: A slate enamelling works situated between Aberllefenni and Garneddwen with its own tramway. Three locomotives were supplied in 1878, and partially rebuilt between 1883 and 1900 from 0-4-0 ST s to 0-4-2 ST s. By the 1920s the locomotives were badly worn. A new locomotive, No. 4, was supplied in 1921. In 1923, parts from Nos. 1 and 3 were combined to produce one working locomotive, which carried
1820-450: A slate mine as early as the 14th century. The earliest confirmed date of operating dates from the early 16th century when the local house Plas Aberllefenni was roofed in slates from this quarry. Transport problems meant that the slate was usually used fairly close to the quarries. There was some transport by sea. A poem by the 15th century poet Guto'r Glyn asks the Dean of Bangor to send him
1950-525: A slump in the home building trade had reduced domestic demand; finally French slate producers had increased their exports to the United Kingdom. All of this led to a prolonged decline in demand for Welsh slate. Eight Ffestiniog quarries closed between 1908 and 1913, and the Oakley dismissed 350 men in 1909. R. Merfyn Jones comments: The effects of this depression on the quarrying districts were deep and painful. Unemployment and emigration became constant features of
2080-403: A variety of uses including flooring, worktops and headstones . Up to the end of the 18th century, slate was extracted on a small scale by groups of quarrymen who paid a royalty to the landlord, carted slate to the ports, and then shipped it to England, Ireland and sometimes France. Towards the close of the century, the landowners began to operate the quarries themselves, on a larger scale. After
2210-484: A whole. The caban , the cabin where the quarrymen gathered for their lunch break, was often the scene of wide-ranging discussions, which were often formally minuted. A surviving set of minutes from a caban at the Llechwedd mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog for 1908–1910 records discussions on Church Disestablishment , tariff reform and other political topics. Eisteddfodau were held, poetry composed and discussed and most of
2340-512: A yearly rent of a few shillings and a royalty on the slates produced. The first landowner to take over the working of slates on his land was the owner of the Penrhyn estate, Richard Pennant , later Baron Penrhyn . In 1782, the men working quarries on the estate were bought out or ejected, and Pennant appointed James Greenfield as agent. The same year, Lord Penrhyn opened a new quarry at Caebraichycafn near Bethesda, which as Penrhyn Quarry would become
2470-657: Is a narrow gauge railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd ) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys ) in Mid-Wales . The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, running from quays on the River Dyfi at Morben and Derwenlas , through the town of Machynlleth and then following the Dulas Valley north to Corris and on to Aberllefenni . Branches served the slate quarries at Corris Uchaf , Aberllefenni ,
2600-577: Is open at the top. From 1859 the quarries at Aberllefenni were connected to the Corris Railway , a narrow gauge railway which carried slate down the Dulas Valley to Machynlleth. There it was transferred to the standard gauge Cambrian Railways and shipped throughout Great Britain . The Aberllefenni quarries continued to dispatch slate on the Corris Railway until its closure in 1948. After 1948,
2730-575: The Aberllefenni , Abercorris , Gaewern and Hengae quarries met with engineer Arthur Causton to propose the Abercorris and Aberdovey Railway . By November 1850, the name had changed to the Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Railway or Tramroad which was planned to run down the Dulas Valley and then along the north shore of the Dyfi past Pennal to Pant Eidal, near the later main-line Gogarth Halt . A bill
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#17328697043382860-542: The Dee valley and around Machynlleth . The virtues of slate as a building and roofing material have been recognised since the Roman period. The Roman fort at Segontium, Caernarfon, was originally roofed with tiles, but the later levels contain numerous slates, used for both roofing and flooring. The nearest deposits are about five miles (8 km) away in the Cilgwyn area, indicating that
2990-458: The Falcon Works , Loughborough . They were numbered 1 to 10, with a brake van from the same source taking the number 11. The first bogie carriage, also from Falcon, which looked like two four-wheel bodies mounted on a single chassis, received number 12, and the four-wheelers were rebuilt over a five-year period on new chassis to form five bogie vehicles. A renumbering had the rebuilds as 1 to 5 and
3120-534: The Ffestiniog Railway , and Abergynolwyn and Bryn Eglwys quarry , including the Talyllyn Railway . The Welsh slate industry was essentially a Welsh-speaking industry. Most of the workforce in the main slate-producing areas of North Wales were drawn from the local area, with little immigration from outside Wales. The industry had a considerable influence on the culture of the area and on that of Wales as
3250-638: The Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda , the Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis , the Nantlle Valley quarries, and Blaenau Ffestiniog , where the slate was mined rather than quarried . Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is also produced as thicker slab for
3380-623: The River Dwyryd to the estuary, where it was transferred to larger vessels. There was further expansion at Blaenau when John Whitehead Greaves , who had been running the Votty quarry since 1833, took a lease on the land between this quarry and the main Ffestiniog to Betws-y-Coed road. After years of digging he struck the famous Old Vein in 1846 in what became the Llechwedd quarry . A fire which destroyed
3510-604: The Talyllyn Railway as their No.17 while No.7 (used as a chicken coop) was recovered ten years later and is on display in the Corris Railway Museum. The brake van was also preserved on the Talyllyn but has been substantially rebuilt after being damaged in a fire. As nineteen passenger vehicles (ten four-wheel carriages, eight bogie carriages and the brake van) ran on the original railway, the preservation Society has numbered its new build carriages from 20 onwards. Carriage 7
3640-409: The "rubbish men" who cleared the waste rock from the galleries and built the tips of waste which surrounded the quarry. Only about a tenth, or less, of the rock extracted became finished product. The bad rockmen and rubbish men were usually paid by the ton of material removed, but the quarrymen were paid according to a more complicated system. Part of the payment was determined by the number of slates
3770-445: The 1859 scheme was the one that was built. Construction proceeded quickly, and by April 1859 the tramroad opened between Machynlleth and Corris. The section from Aberllefenni to Corris was built later that year. The section from Machynlleth to Morben was opened later. It is thought that the tramroad never extended beyond Morben. On 3 January 1863, the standard gauge Newtown and Machynlleth Railway had opened, followed on 1 July of
3900-562: The A&;WCR opposed it. This time, however, they withdrew their objection; the CM&;RDT company had been acquired by Thomas Savin , who was the principal contractor in the construction of the tramroad, and Savin had offered to sell the company to the A&WCR. The second bill passed on 25 July as the Corris Railway Act 1864 ( 27 & 28 Vict. c. ccxxv); it formally converted the tramroad to
4030-588: The Berwyn Quarry near Llangollen . The final large-scale underground working to close was Maenofferen, associated with the Llechwedd tourist mine, in 1999: part of this site, now effectively amalgamated with Votty / Bowydd, is still worked by untopping. The Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff uses waste slate in many different colours in its design: purple slate from Penrhyn, blue from Cwt-y-Bugail, green from Nantlle, grey from Llechwedd, and black from Corris. Part of
Aberllefenni quarries - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-599: The Bethesda area, mainly from the Penrhyn Quarry. Blaenau Ffestiniog produced almost as much, and the Dinorwig Quarry alone produced 80,000 tons per year. The Nantlle Valley quarries produced 40,000 tons, while the remainder of Wales outside these areas produced only about 20,000 tons per year. By the late 1870s, Wales was producing 450,000 tons of slate per year, compared with just over 50,000 tons for
4290-792: The Breedon Group). It was previously owned by the Lagan Group, which also owned and carried out some operations at the Oakeley quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Pen yr Orsedd quarry in the Nantlle Vale, and the Cwt-y-Bugail quarry. In March 2010 the company announced its decision to mothball the Oakeley quarry because of subsidence at the site. The Greaves Welsh Slate Company produces roofing slates and other slate products from Llechwedd, and work also continues at
4420-565: The Corris Railway Act 1864 did not permit passengers to be carried, a timetabled passenger service was started in 1872. In 1874, a new goods warehouse and horse stable was built besides the transshipment wharves at Machynlleth, this was later converted to form the first passenger station here. In 1878, control of the railway passed to the Imperial Tramways Company of London. The new owners ordered new passenger carriages for
4550-632: The Corris since its reopening. In 2012, No. 3 featured in a steam Gala over May Bank Holiday weekend along with the railway's resident steam loco No. 7. No. 3's boiler ticket expired on 17 May 2012 and the loco was on static display at Maespoeth until February 2013, when the loco left the Corris to tour heritage railways and museums in the UK to raise awareness of the Talyllyn and to raise funds for its overhaul. The Corris Railway had several unusual features: The Corris Railway had numerous branch lines, mainly built to serve
4680-579: The Corris to the Great Western Railway (GWR), who by that time were the owners of the main line serving Machynlleth, whose primary interest was taking control of the railway's bus routes. After running a bus in direct competition with the railway in 1930, the railway's passenger service was withdrawn at the beginning of 1931. While the GWR did not relish owning another Welsh narrow gauge line, they did perform some track maintenance, and on at least two occasions
4810-454: The Corris) were: Locomotives brought to the restored Corris Railway since 1967 have been numbered in the original locomotive numbering series, from 5 onwards. They are: [REDACTED] As of 2023 , locomotives 7 and 10 are the only steam engines, and share passenger duties. Locomotive 11 is the main diesel motive power unit for both works trains and out of season passenger trains, supported by
4940-471: The Dinorwig Quarry, with machinery powered by overhead shafting that in its turn was driven by the largest water-wheel in the United Kingdom, over 50 feet in diameter. There were several different categories of worker in the quarries. The quarrymen proper, who made up just over 50% of the workforce, worked the slate in partnerships of three, four, six or eight, known as "bargain gangs". A gang of four typically consisted of two "rockmen" who would blast
5070-575: The Dinorwig Slate Quarry is now within the Padarn Country Park, and the other part houses the Dinorwig power station in caverns under the old quarry workings. The National Slate Museum is located in some of the quarry workshops. The museum has displays including Victorian slate-workers' cottages that once stood at Tanygrisiau near Blaenau Ffestiniog. The museum has a working water wheel, and
5200-554: The Dovey Bridge, and although the track was never breached, it was the excuse that BR needed to close the line. The last train ran on 20 August 1948 and the following day the railway was closed, without notice. The Aberllefenni to Corris section was lifted in November 1948, and 10 tons of the rail was purchased by Henry Haydn Jones for use on his Talyllyn Railway. By the end of 1950, track lifting had reached Machynlleth station. In 1951,
5330-575: The Ordovician slate was less brittle than the Cambrian slate further north, and therefore easier to work by machine. The slate mill evolved between 1840 and 1860, powered by a single line shaft running along the building and bringing together operations such as sawing, planing and dressing. In 1859, John Whitehead Greaves invented the Greaves sawing table to produce blocks for the splitter, then in 1856 introduced
Aberllefenni quarries - Misplaced Pages Continue
5460-497: The Penrhyn Quarry between 1900 and 1903 marked the beginning of its decline, and the First World War saw a great reduction in the number of men employed in the industry. The Great Depression and Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles , resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on
5590-405: The Penrhyn Quarry. Further mechanisation was introduced, with a computerised laser beam being used to aid the sawing of the slate blocks. As of 2022 , the Penrhyn Quarry is still producing slate, though at a much reduced capacity from its heyday at the end of the 19th century. In 1995, it accounted for almost 50% of UK production. It is currently owned and operated by Welsh Slate Ltd (part of
5720-503: The Penrhyn and Dinorwig quarries and in the Nantlle Valley. There are smaller outcrops elsewhere, for example on Anglesey . The Ordovician deposits run south-west from Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog ; these were the deposits mined at Blaenau Ffestiniog. There is another band of Ordovician slate further south, running from Llangynnog to Aberdyfi , quarried mainly in the Corris area, with a few outcrops in south-west Wales, notably Pembrokeshire . The Silurian deposits are mainly further east in
5850-420: The Penrhyn estate are recorded from 1713 when 14 shipments totalling 415,000 slates were sent to Dublin . The slates were carried to the ports by pack-horses, and later by carts. This was sometimes done by women, the only female involvement in what was otherwise an exclusively male industry. Until the late 18th century, slate was extracted from many small pits by small partnerships of local men, who did not own
5980-453: The Penrhyn quarries produced an annual net profit of £ 100,000, and the Dinorwig Quarry £70,000 a year. From 1860 onwards slate prices rose steadily. Quarries expanded and the population of the quarrying districts increased, for example the population of Ffestiniog parish increased from 732 in 1801 to 11,274 in 1881. Total Welsh production reached 350,000 tons a year by the end of the 1860s. Of this total, over 100,000 tons came from
6110-468: The Talyllyn Railway became the first railway in the world to be preserved . The Talyllyn purchased the two remaining locomotives, which had been stored out of use at Machynlleth, along with several goods waggons and the brake van – see List of Talyllyn Railway rolling stock . In 1958, the Talyllyn also purchased one of the Corris carriages, which had been in use as a summerhouse in a garden in Gobowen . In
6240-529: The adjacent railway stable block standing, and these buildings – badly in need of maintenance – were acquired, along with a short section of trackbed leading southwards. In 1970 the first part of the building was opened as the Corris Railway Museum . A short length of "demonstration" track was laid in 1971. During the 1970s, the Society undertook lengthy negotiations with the relevant authorities to establish
6370-470: The authorities continued. In the summer of 2002, passenger services resumed after a break of seventy-two years, initially diesel-hauled. The railway built a new steam locomotive, to a design based on the Kerr Stuart No. 4, which arrived on the railway on 17 May 2005 and runs as No. 7 (the Corris Railway never officially named its locomotives). No. 7 went into service on 20 August 2005, fifty-seven years to
6500-471: The authorities, not least due to the line south of Maespoeth running immediately adjacent to the A487 trunk road. While these are continuing the railway has consolidated its facilities at Maespoeth with the construction of a new two-road carriage shed in the adjacent field (the original carriage sheds at Corris and Machynlleth having been demolished). In 2015 work began on building the new diversion embankment to enable
6630-438: The building was returned to satisfactory condition. In 1981 the line's original locomotive shed at Maespoeth was acquired and became the railway's operational base. During the 1980s light track was laid between Maespoeth and Corris, a distance of just under a mile (1.6 km). The formal "first train" back to Corris ran on 24 April 1985. In the following years the track was upgraded to passenger standards while negotiations with
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#17328697043386760-456: The capital to expand further. The quarrymen usually had to pay a rent or royalty to the landlord, though the quarrymen at Cilgwyn did not. A letter from the agent of the Penrhyn estate, John Paynter, in 1738 complains that competition from Cilgwyn was affecting the sales of Penrhyn slates. The Cilgwyn slates could be extracted more cheaply and sold at a higher price. Penrhyn introduced larger sizes of slate between 1730 and 1740, and gave these sizes
6890-514: The coastal town of Porthmadog, where it was loaded onto ships. The railway was graded so that loaded slate waggons could be run by gravity downhill all the way from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the port. The empty waggons were hauled back up by horses, which travelled down in 'dandy' waggons . This helped expansion at the Blaenau Ffestiniog quarries, which had previously had to cart the slate to Maentwrog to be loaded onto small boats and taken down
7020-422: The day since the last train on the original railway, and now hauls the regular passenger service between Corris and Maespoeth. The railway is also actively pursuing a southwards extension towards Machynlleth, with the initial aim of extending the line to Tan-y-Coed, midway between Esgairgeiliog and Llwyngwern and some 2 1 ⁄ 2 miles south of Corris. As always, this is involving lengthy negotiations with
7150-640: The death rate for underground workers in the slate mines was 3.23 per thousand, higher than the rate for coal miners . The outbreak of World War II in 1939 led to a severe drop in trade. Part of the Manod quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog was used to store art treasures from the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery . The number of men employed in the slate industry in North Wales dropped from 7,589 in 1939 to 3,520 by
7280-665: The early 1960s a group of volunteers from the Talyllyn Railway, led by Alan Meaden, began visiting Corris. They wanted to establish a museum for the line and formed The Corris Society in December 1966. Another group, the Corris Railway Preservation Society , was set up in the West Midlands around the same time. The two groups merged, forming the Corris Railway Society in 1968 with the aim of preserving what
7410-455: The end of the war. In 1945, total production was only 70,000 tons a year, and fewer than 20 quarries were still open compared with 40 before the war. The Nantlle Valley had been particularly hard hit, with only 350 workers employed in the entire district, compared with 1,000 in 1937. Demand for slate was dropping as tiles were increasingly used for roofing, and imports from countries such as Portugal , France and Italy were increasing. There
7540-681: The end of working in 2003. Slate industry in Wales The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period , when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium , now Caernarfon . The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then rapidly during the Industrial Revolution in Wales until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in northwest Wales . These sites included
7670-576: The existence of the Corris Railway was to serve the slate quarries of this district. Although usually referred to as quarries, those on the Narrow Vein were usually underground mine workings, following the course of the vein, while those on the Broad Vein were more usually opencast quarries. The outliers in the south of the valley were also opencast. This list shows the main quarries that the railway served: The railway also served Y Magnus (Matthew's Mill),
7800-450: The extension of a system of contracting out parts of the quarry. The quarrymen, instead of arranging their own bargains, would find themselves working for a contractor. The union's funds for strike pay were inadequate, and there was a great deal of hardship among the 2,800 workers. Lord Penrhyn reopened the quarry in June 1901, and about 500 men returned to work, to be castigated as "traitors" by
7930-484: The former 12 becoming 6. Two all-new carriages to a similar design were built by the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Ltd and numbered 7 & 8. Nos. 1 to 6 disappeared, presumed scrapped, after 1930; however Nos. 7 and 8 were used by a GWR employee at his home in Gobowen and subsequently preserved. No. 8 (used as a greenhouse-cum-garden shed) was recovered in 1958 and rebuilt for use on
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#17328697043388060-425: The gang produced, but this could vary greatly according to the nature of the rock in the section allocated to them. The men would therefore be paid an extra sum of "poundage" per pound's worth of slate produced. "Bargains" were let by the setting steward, who would agree a price for a certain area of rock. If the rock in the bargain allocated to a gang was poor, they would be paid a higher poundage, while good rock meant
8190-414: The government abolished slate duty in 1831, rapid expansion was propelled by the building of narrow gauge railways to transport the slates to the ports. The slate industry dominated the economy of north-west Wales during the second half of the 19th century, but was on a much smaller scale elsewhere. In 1898, a work force of 17,000 men produced half a million tons of slate. A bitter industrial dispute at
8320-497: The horse-drawn Llandegai Tramway to transport slates from Penrhyn Quarry, and in 1801 this was replaced by the narrow gauge Penrhyn Quarry Railway , one of the earliest railway lines. The slates were transported to the sea at Port Penrhyn which had been constructed in the 1790s. The Padarn Railway was opened in 1824 as a tramway for the Dinorwig Quarry, and converted to a railway in 1843. It ran from Gilfach Ddu near Llanberis to Port Dinorwic at Y Felinheli . The Nantlle Railway
8450-405: The industry. This growth was mainly at Blaenau Ffestiniog and in the Nantlle Valley, where the workforce at Penyrorsedd reached 450. Slate production in Wales peaked at over half a million tons in 1898, with 17,000 men employed in the industry. A second lock-out or strike at the Penrhyn Quarry began on 22 November 1900 and lasted for three years. The causes of the dispute were complex, but included
8580-444: The isolated quarries around Ratgoed and quarries along the length of the Dulas Valley. In 1878, the railway was rebuilt and steam locomotives were introduced. It was taken over by the Great Western Railway , in 1929 and closed in 1948. A preservation society was formed in 1966, initially opening a museum at Corris. A short section of line between Corris and Maespoeth was re-opened to passengers in 2002. The railway now operates as
8710-412: The larger quarries had their own band , with the Oakley band particularly famous. Burn calculates that there are around fifty men judged worthy of an entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography who started their working lives as slate quarrymen, compared to only four owners, though obviously there was also a distinct disparity in the numbers of the two groups. A number of Welsh writers have drawn on
8840-402: The largest quarries in mid Wales, employing 300 men and producing 30% of the total output of the Corris district. The Cardigan Railway was opened in 1873, partly to carry slate traffic, and enabled the Glogue quarry in Pembrokeshire to grow to employ 80 men. Mechanization was gradually introduced to make most aspects of the industry more efficient, particularly at Blaenau Ffestiniog where
8970-443: The largest slate quarry in the world. By 1792, this quarry was employing 500 men and producing 15,000 tons of slate per year. At Dinorwig, a single large partnership took over in 1787, and in 1809 the landowner, Thomas Assheton Smith of Vaynol , took the management of the quarry into his own hands. The Cilgwyn quarries were taken over by a company in 1800, and the scattered workings at all three locations were amalgamated into
9100-546: The lighter diesel locomotives 5 and 6, which are currently the main works and shunting units. The CM&RDT carried passengers from as early as 1860, despite this being explicitly prohibited by its authorising Act. Until 1874, passengers travelled in open waggons attached to the quarry trains. From October 1874, the railway ran separate, timetabled passenger trains. Around 1875, at least two wagons were converted to crude, almost windowless closed carriages. In November 1878, ten four-wheel, tramcar-like carriages were delivered from
9230-468: The line continued on through subsequent decades, serving the quarries around Corris and Aberllefenni , it never again showed a profit. The bridge over the River Dyfi was rebuilt that year replacing the second timber viaduct with a steel bridge on slate piers. Following a dispute with the directors, Dix was dismissed in June 1907, and replaced by John J O'Sullivan (formerly of the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway ). A new station building at Machynlleth
9360-408: The line's northern terminus at Aberllefenni , with services starting on 25 August 1887, and in the same year stations were also opened at Ffridd Gate and Garneddwen . The railway developed a network of horse-hauled road services, including providing a link between Corris station and Abergynolwyn station on the Talyllyn Railway. This was promoted as part of a circular " Grand Tour " which took in
9490-429: The lives of the quarrymen for their material, for example the novels of T. Rowland Hughes. Chwalfa , translated into English as Out of their night (1954), has the Penrhyn Quarry dispute as a background, while Y cychwyn , translated as The beginning (1969), follows the apprenticeship of a young quarryman. Several novels by Kate Roberts , the daughter of a quarryman, give a picture of the area around Rhosgadfan, where
9620-489: The main line in 1852. The Corris Railway opened as the horse-worked Corris, Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramroad in 1859, connecting the slate quarries around Corris and Aberllefenni with wharves on the estuary of the River Dyfi . The Ffestiniog Railway converted to steam in 1863, and the Talyllyn Railway was opened in 1866 to serve the Bryn Eglwys quarry above the village of Abergynolwyn . Bryn Eglwys grew to be one of
9750-460: The management money. This system was not finally abolished until after the Second World War. Because of this arrangement, the men tended to see themselves as independent contractors rather than employees on a wage, and trade unions were slow to develop. There were grievances however, including unfairness in setting bargains and disputes over days off. The North Wales Quarrymen's Union (NWQMU)
9880-504: The miners. The Braichgoch slate mines at Corris have been converted into a tourist attraction named "King Arthur's Labyrinth" where visitors are taken underground by boat along a subterranean river and walk through the caverns to see audiovisual presentations of the Arthurian legends. The Llwyngwern quarry near Machynlleth is now the site of the Centre for Alternative Technology . A number of
10010-416: The morning, and the same distance home after six in the evening; to work hard from six to six; to dine on cold coffee, or a cup of buttermilk, and a slice of bread and butter; and to support (as some of them had to do) a family of perhaps five, eight or ten children on wages averaging from 12s to 16s a week. In 1879, a period of twenty years of almost uninterrupted growth came to an end, and the slate industry
10140-551: The names which became standard. These ranged from "Duchesses", the largest at 24 inches (610 mm) by 12 inches (300 mm), through "Countesses", "Ladies" and "Doubles" to the smallest "Singles". Methusalem Jones, previously a quarryman at Cilgwyn, began to work the Diffwys quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog in the 1760s, which became the first large quarry in the area. The large landowners were initially content to issue "take notes", allowing individuals to quarry slates on their lands for
10270-425: The number 3. The remaining original locomotive, No 2, was held in reserve until 1928. A report dated 12 October 1929 stated that locomotives 1 and 2 had been "marked off for some time as scrap" and the remains of both engines were handed over to a local scrap merchant and excluded from the assets taken over by the GWR. The locomotives that ran on the original Corris Railway between 1878 and 1948 (none carried names on
10400-540: The occasion of its 125th anniversary with a heritage train of carriage No. 17, brake van No. 6 and two trucks. Corris No. 5 visited the Talyllyn Railway in 1983 and 1990, and No. 7 in October 2011. It hauled a few charter trains and played a part in the TR's Corris Weekend, when it ran with the two surviving ex Corris engines; No. 4 ( Edward Thomas ) and No. 3 ( Sir Haydn ) and stock. Both the surviving original locomotives have visited
10530-401: The oldest quarry in Wales, closed in 1914, though it later reopened. In 1917, slate quarrying was declared a non-essential industry and a number of quarries were closed for the remainder of the war. The demand for new houses after the end of the war brought back a measure of prosperity; in the slate mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog production was almost back to 1913 levels by 1927, but in the quarries
10660-418: The other two that had been ordered and all three had begun work. Although the carriages arrived in 1878 it was not until 1883 that the act of Parliament was secured to allow the formal commencement of passenger services. A semi-official passenger service had been running since the early 1870s using adapted waggons to convey quarry workers and visitors. The line was now in its settled form and began to operate
10790-417: The output was still well below the pre-war level. The Great Depression in the 1930s led to cuts in production, with exports particularly hard hit. The quarries and mines made increasing use of mechanisation from the start of the 20th century, with electricity replacing steam and water as a power source. The Llechwedd quarry introduced its first electrical plant in 1891, and in 1906, a hydro-electric plant
10920-404: The parent company's Secretary, Frederick H Withers, acted as manager until a new manager, Daniel J McCourt (who had worked on Imperial's Middlesbrough system until that was taken over by the local municipality) took over in 1921 and was responsible for developing and extending the connecting bus services as partial compensation for the decline in rail traffic. In late 1929, Imperial Tramways sold
11050-475: The plans for a 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge railway along the Dyfi valley, these early proposals were shelved. In December 1857, a fourth bill was set before Parliament to create the Corris Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramroad (CM&RDT). This was similar to the 1851 scheme, except that it proposed to cross the Dyfi near Machynlleth and then follow
11180-479: The professions, and in Wales as a whole, its output value compared with that of coal. The prosperity of the slate industry led to the growth of a number of other associated industries. Shipbuilding increased at a number of coastal locations, particularly at Porthmadog, where 201 ships were built between 1836 and 1880. Engineering companies were set up to supply the quarries, notably De Winton at Caernarfon. In 1870, De Winton built and equipped an entire workshop for
11310-525: The quarry under the name Wincilate Ltd. Rapid modernization and mechanisation of the quarry allowed it to continue to produce slate into the 1990s. Aberllefenni was the last working slate mine south of Blaenau Ffestiniog . However, by 2002 it was no longer economical to extract slate at Aberllefenni and the mine closed in 2003. The slate mill continues to operate, processing slate imported from Blaenau Ffestiniog , Penrhyn and China. Small pieces of Aberllefenni slate are still available for name plates. One of
11440-405: The quarry was employing 169 men and produced nearly 4700 tons of finished slate and slab. The number of employees peaked in 1890 at 190. Production fluctuated but was trending downwards during the 1890s and 1900s. In 1908, the number of employees fell below 100 and declined further to 71 in 1910. The First World War saw a downturn in production in the whole industry, including at Aberllefenni. After
11570-450: The quarry, and it passed to the Campbell family in 1725. In 1806, John Davies gained control which passed to the executor of his estate, Pryce Jones, in 1824. It was Davies who first organised commercial quarrying at Aberllefenni around 1810. Although only 3 workers were employed in 1825, by 1854 the quarry was producing significant amounts of slate; that year the enormous "Alma" open chamber at
11700-511: The railway ran a test passenger service on the local roads; this proved to be so popular that they were able to pass the act of Parliament over the opposition of the quarry owners. It was also the first instance of a long history of the Corris Railway operating passenger road services in the area. In December 1878 the first steam locomotive purchased from the Hughes Locomotive Company arrived. By February 1879 it had been joined by
11830-450: The railway. They also appointed Joseph R. Dix, son of the main-line stationmaster at Machynlleth, as Manager in succession to David Owen. In 1880 and 1883, two new acts were obtained which adjusted the tolls on the railway and permitted the carriage of passengers. The second of these acts was necessary because the owners of the quarries served by the railway objected that passenger trains would interfere with their mineral traffic. Initially
11960-639: The railways which carried the slates to the ports have been restored as tourist attractions, for example the Ffestiniog Railway and the Talyllyn Railway. In July 2021, after development of a bid for over 10 years, the slate landscape of Northwest Wales was inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . The areas included in the nomination include Penrhyn quarry and the Ogwen Valley , Dinorwic quarry , Nantlle Valley , Gorseddau and Prince of Wales quarries, Ffestiniog and Porthmadog , including
12090-438: The reasons for Aberllefenni's continued use was the high quality of the slate extracted. There are two major veins of slate running parallel to each other through this region of mid-Wales, the Broad Vein and the Narrow Vein , the latter of which Aberllefenni extracted. The broad vein is of considerably poorer quality than the narrow vein, and the slate it produces is of little use in roofing slates or polished surfaces. Instead it
12220-463: The remainder. Eventually the workers were forced to return to work in November 1903 on terms laid down by Lord Penrhyn. Many of the men considered to have been prominent in the union were not re-employed, and many of those who had left the area to seek work elsewhere did not return. The dispute left a lasting legacy of bitterness in the Bethesda area. The loss of production at Penrhyn led to a temporary shortage of slates and kept prices high, but part of
12350-418: The requirements for re-opening the line for passengers, while steadily building up funds and equipment In 1974, planning permission was received to re-open the line from Maespoeth Junction to Corris station. A new Corris Railway Company , reviving the original name, was incorporated to act as the Society's trading and operating arm, while the Society achieved charitable status. The Museum was extended as more of
12480-430: The rest of the United Kingdom, which then included Ireland. In 1882, 92% of the United Kingdom's production was from Wales with the quarries at Penrhyn and Dinorwig producing half of this between them. Alun Richards comments on the importance of the slate industry: It dominated the economy of the north-west of Wales, where, by the middle of the 19thC. it accounted for almost half the total revenues from trade, industry and
12610-409: The rock to produce blocks, a splitter, who would split the blocks with hammer and chisel, and a dresser. A rybelwr would usually be a boy learning his trade, who would wander around the galleries offering assistance to the gangs. Sometimes a gang would give him a block of slate to split. Other groups were the "bad rockmen" who usually worked in crews of three, removing unworkable rock from the face, and
12740-452: The rolling stock was repainted. On 1 January 1948, the line was nationalised along with its parent company, becoming part of British Railways (BR). While the GWR had tolerated the Corris, BR was looking for an excuse to close the loss making railway. In August 1948, that excuse came when the River Dyfi flooded. The waters began to undermine the Corris Railway embankment on the south side of
12870-513: The same year by the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway's (A&WCR) line from Machynlleth to Borth . These two lines became part of the Cambrian Railways by August 1865. The opening of the standard gauge line to Borth made the section of the CM&RDT from Machynlleth to Morben obsolete. It was much easier to transship slates to the main line at Machynlleth and most of the lower section of
13000-493: The short tramway connecting the quarries to the slate cutting shed at Aberllefenni continued in use. Although locomotives were used underground, the tramway was operated by horse haulage. This continued until the early 1960s, when a tractor replaced the horses. The tramway was removed in the late 1970s, being replaced with lorries and forklift trucks. Underground, the 2 ft 3 in ( 686 mm ) gauge tramway continued in use, operated by battery electric locomotives until
13130-616: The short-lived Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway in Mid Wales, and the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway in Scotland. Before 1859, slate from the quarries at Corris, Corris Uchaf and Aberllefenni was hauled by horse-drawn carts and sledges to wharves on the banks of the River Dyfi. The first proposal to construct a railway connecting the quarries to the coast came in August 1850, when the owners of
13260-419: The shortfall was made up by imports. French exports of slate to the UK increased from 40,000 tons in 1898 to 105,000 tons in 1902. After 1903 there was a depression in the slate industry which led to reductions in pay and job losses. New techniques in tile manufacture had reduced costs, making tiles more competitive. In addition, several countries had placed tariffs on the import of British slate, while
13390-547: The slate communities; distress was widespread. In the quarries there was short-time working, closures and reductions in earnings. Between 1906 and 1913 the number of men at work in the quarries of the Ffestiniog district shrank by 28 per cent, in Dyffryn Nantlle the number at work fell even more dramatically by 38 per cent. The First World War hit the slate industry badly, particularly in Blaenau Ffestiniog where exports to Germany had been an important source of income. Cilgwyn,
13520-512: The slate industry was on a smaller scale and many of the quarrymen were also smallholders. Her novel Traed mewn cyffion (1936), translated as Feet in chains (2002), gives a vivid picture of the struggles of a quarrying family in the period between 1880 and 1914. Y Chwarelwr ("The Quarryman") produced in 1935 was the first Welsh-language film. It showed various aspects of a slate quarryman's life at Blaenau Ffestiniog. Corris Railway The Corris Railway ( Welsh : Rheilffordd Corris )
13650-465: The slate quarries along its route. The principal branches were: Only the Aberllefenni Quarry tramway may have been locomotive worked, and in the 1960s and 1970s a tractor was used to haul waggons along it. The rest of these branches were operated by gravity and horses. Other temporary branches were built to aid forestry works from the First World War until the 1930s. The principal reason for
13780-554: The slates were not used merely because they were available on-site. During the mediaeval period, there was small-scale quarrying of slate in several areas. The Cilgwyn quarry in the Nantlle Valley dates from the 12th century, and is thought to be the oldest in Wales. The first record of slate quarrying in the neighbourhood of the later Penrhyn Quarry was in 1413, when a rent-roll of Gwilym ap Griffith records that several of his tenants were paid 10 pence each for working 5,000 slates. Aberllefenni Slate Quarry may have started operating as
13910-525: The south bank of the river, and proposed a tramway from the "machine house" (i.e. the slate mill) at Aberllefenni, down to the wharf at "Cae Goch on the River Dovey" (Cae Goch was near to the later main line Glandyfi station). The gauge specified for the tramroad was increased to 2 ft 3 in ( 686 mm ), and the same restriction forbidding locomotives was imposed. This bill was passed on 12 July 1858. After more than eight years of proposals,
14040-454: The south; all three were worked as a single concern throughout their history. Rock was mainly extracted underground, though all three quarries had open pits as well. Aberllefenni quarry may have started operating as early as the 14th century. The earliest confirmed date is 1500 when the local house Plas Aberllefenni was roofed in slates from the mine. In the seventeenth century the Lloyd family owned
14170-525: The southerly extension. During 2009, the railway marked the 150th anniversary of the first train on the Corris with a series of events, including demonstration horse-worked freight trains and gravity runs of rakes of waggons. The revived Corris Railway has maintained friendly links with the Talyllyn Railway, which resulted in both of the original Corris locos and rolling stock returning to the railway. In 1996 ex-Corris loco No. 4 returned to celebrate its 75th anniversary. In 2003, ex-Corris loco No. 3 returned on
14300-522: The top of Foel Grochan was named after the Battle of the Alma . By 1850, the quarry was owned by Colonel Robert Davies Jones, and was trading under the name Aberllefenni Slate Quarries. In 1873, the quarry appointed Robert Hughes as manager, and he quickly modernised working practices there. He installed new machinery in the extended mill, powered by a large waterwheel. That year the quarry employed 180 men. By 1879,
14430-489: The tramway was abandoned, probably in 1869. In 1862, a new bill was deposited, seeking to extend the Upper Corris Tramway to iron ore mines at Tir Stent , near the pub at Cross Foxes . The bill also sought powers to raise further capital for the tramroad and allow the use of locomotives. But the directors of the A&WCR objected and the bill failed. Another similar bill was deposited in December 1863, and again
14560-439: The two narrow gauge railways and the Cambrian service between Tywyn and Machynlleth. In 1892, control of Imperial Tramways moved to Bristol and George White of Bristol Tramways became chairman and Clifton Robinson became managing director. In the 1900s, Bristol motor buses were sent by the parent company to run the road services. The closure of Braichgoch Quarry in 1906 brought the railway its first loss, and although
14690-410: The two sides usually involved the use of interpreters. In October 1885, there was a dispute at Dinorwig over the curtailing of holidays which led to a lock-out lasting until February 1886. At the Penrhyn Quarry, George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant took over from his father Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant in 1885, and in 1886 appointed E. A. Young as chief manager. A more stringent management regime
14820-485: The valley side just to the north of the near-vertical narrow vein. Each tunnel connected to a large chamber from which the rock was extracted. These chambers ranged from 100 to 187 feet (30.5 to 57.0 m) in length with 24 to 30 feet (7.3 to 9.1 m) of rock left between the bottom of one chamber and the top of the next lower chamber. As more slate was extracted, several of the upper chambers were joined vertically to form an extremely large cavern known as Twll Golau which
14950-401: The war there was a short boom into the early 1920s, but then the price of slate began to fall. By the early 1930s, the industry was in a deep depression, with a 3-day week being worked for part of 1933. The quarry was owned by A. Hamilton Pryce, who in 1935 leased it to Sir Henry Haydn Jones , owner of the Bryn Eglwys quarry near Abergynolwyn and the Talyllyn Railway that served it. There
15080-417: The west side of Machynlleth, with some slate trains continuing to the wharfs at Morben. It took until the 1870s for work to begin to upgrade the Corris Railway to a standard where locomotives could be used. The original tramroad was laid with light bridge rail suitable for waggons to traverse as they were pulled by horses. These rails would not support the weight of much heavier steam locomotives. Although
15210-430: Was built in 1828 and was operated using horse-power to carry slate from several slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon. In 1831 slate duty was abolished, and this helped to produce a rapid expansion in the industry, particularly since the duty on tiles was not abolished until 1833. The Ffestiniog Railway line was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to
15340-447: Was completed towards the end of 1907. As well as slate and passengers, the line hauled timber extracted from the Dyfi forest in the 1910s through 1930s. There was also a constant traffic in coal and general goods to the quarries and communities served by the railway. After World War I , the decline in slate traffic continued as cheaper foreign slate and alternative roofing materials became popular. O'Sullivan had died in office in 1917;
15470-565: Was dependent upon slate quarrying and quarry closures led to a growth in unemployment in 1959. The nearby Votty and Bowydd quarries also closed in 1963 and in 1969, 300 quarrymen lost their jobs when the Dinorwic quarry closed. The following year the Dorothea quarry in the Nantlle Valley and the Braichgoch quarry near Corris announced their closure. Oakeley at Blaenau Ffestiniog closed in 1971, but
15600-506: Was formed in 1874, and the same year there were disputes at Dinorwig and then at Penrhyn. Both these disputes ended in victory for the workers, and by May 1878, the union had 8,368 members. One of the founders of the union, Morgan Richards, described in 1876 the conditions when he started work in the quarries forty years before: I well remember the time when I was myself a child of bondage; when my father and neighbours, as well as myself, had to rise early, to walk five miles (8 km) before six in
15730-404: Was harmless. In 1979, after a long struggle, the government recognised silicosis as an industrial disease meriting compensation. There was an increase in demand for slate in the 1980s, and although this came too late for many quarries there was still some production in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area at the Oakeley, Llechwedd and Cwt-y-Bugail quarries, though the bulk of roofing slate production was at
15860-464: Was hit by a recession which lasted until the 1890s. Management responded by tightening rules and making it more difficult for the men to take time off. Labour relations were worsened by differences in language, religion and politics between the two sides. The owners and top managers at most of the quarries were English-speaking, Anglican and Tory , while the quarrymen were Welsh-speaking and mainly Nonconformist and Liberal . Negotiations between
15990-508: Was introduced, and relations with the workforce deteriorated. This culminated in the suspension of 57 members of the union committee and 17 other men in September 1896, leading to a strike which lasted eleven months. The men were eventually obliged to go back to work, essentially on the management's terms, in August 1897. This strike became known as "The Penrhyn Lockout". There was an upturn in trade in 1892, heralding another period of growth in
16120-409: Was later reopened by another company. By 1972, fewer than 1,000 men were employed in the North Wales slate industry. For many years, the quarry owners had denied that slate dust was the cause of the high levels of silicosis suffered by quarrymen. From 1909, they had been responsible for all accidents and illnesses caused by the work, but had managed to persuade successive governments that slate dust
16250-498: Was left of the railway, opening a dedicated museum, and to explore reviving some or all of the line. Many of the founding members of the Society were volunteers on the Talyllyn. Other than at Aberllefenni and Braichgoch quarries, no rails remained in situ along the Corris route. Initially the Society sought to purchase Machynlleth station for its museum, but when this proved impossible it turned its sights elsewhere. The main buildings of Corris station were demolished in 1968 leaving only
16380-538: Was opened in Cwm Dyli, on the lower slopes of Snowdon , which supplied electricity to the largest quarries in the area. The use of electric saws and other machinery reduced the hard manual labour involved in extracting the slate, but produced much more slate dust than the old manual methods, leading to an increased incidence of silicosis . The work was also dangerous in other ways, with the blasting operations responsible for many deaths. A government enquiry in 1893 found that
16510-541: Was some improvement during the late 1930s, with 140 workers employed in 1940, but the Second World War brought further drops in production, with the number of men fell to 40 in 1944. After the war, the industry continued a slow decline, with industrial action closing the quarry for part of 1947. During the 1950s only about 40 men were working, all in Foel Grochan quarry. In 1956, brothers Gwilym and Dewi Lloyd took over
16640-421: Was some increased demand for slates to repair bombed buildings after the end of the war, but the use of slate for new buildings was banned, apart from the smallest sizes. This ban was lifted in 1949. Total production of slate in Wales declined from 54,000 tons in 1958 to 22,000 tons in 1970. The Diffwys quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog closed in 1955 after almost two centuries of operation. North Wales
16770-463: Was submitted in early 1851, withdrawn, then resubmitted in December. The bill specified the tramroad's gauge as 2 ft 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 in (673 mm); due to the narrow gauge selected, the House of Lords committee imposed a restriction in the bill that forbade the use of locomotives . This 1851 scheme was not constructed, and was followed by two further proposals in the early 1850s. Following
16900-514: Was used in walls, fences and hardcore. The narrow vein was of much better quality and could be used in much higher quality applications and fetched higher prices. Slate extracted from the narrow vein at Aberllefenni is deep blue and extremely hard and dense. It resists fine splitting, so most of the mines' product was large cut slabs rather than split roofing slates. Foel Grochan mine consists of eight near-horizontal tunnels at approximately 60 feet (18.3 m) vertical separation. These were bored into
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