21-686: The National Slate Museum (previously known as the Welsh Slate Museum and the North Wales Quarrying Museum ) is located at Gilfach Ddu , the 19th-century workshops of the now disused Dinorwic quarry , within the Padarn Country Park, Llanberis , Gwynedd . The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of relicts of the Slate industry in Wales . The museum is an anchor point of
42-459: A cupola, with a hipped central gatehouse with a smaller cupola. Much of the architecture is of the classical style , though also possessing Gothic decorative elements , particularly for the cast-iron windows that were purpose built for the foundry. The styling is therefore both distinctive and unique. The De Winton waterwheel, which has recently been restored by the National Museum of Wales ,
63-411: A number of limitations. It passed over land that was not owned by the quarry, so rent had to be paid to the landowners. It used three inclines along its route as it descended; working these slowed traffic and required extra manpower. More difficult still was the fact that most quarry workings were below the level of the line's upper, southern reaches, and even, in some cases, below the line itself. By
84-601: A number of locomotives from Welsh quarries Gilfach Ddu Gilfach Ddu (also known as the Dinorwic Slate Quarry Workshops ) are a series of well-preserved Grade I listed industrial buildings built to serve the Dinorwic slate quarry near Llanberis in Caernarfonshire , North Wales . The workshops compreise a complex of repair and maintenance buildings, that were built in 1870 to build and maintain
105-417: A quadrangular yard, derived more from agricultural than industrial practice, and is unusual as it was built to be decorative as well as practical. This is likely because it was built to make an impression on any of the owners’ guests. Gwyn described it as: ...a remarkably strident assertion of patrician power... with a clock over the entrance, a tower at the corners, each with a pyramidal slate roof crowned by
126-467: A £1.6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and now has displays featuring Victorian era slateworkers' cottages that once stood at Tanygrisiau , near Blaenau Ffestiniog . They were taken down stone by stone and re-erected on the site. The museum includes the multi-media display, To Steal a Mountain , showing the lives and work of the men who quarried slate here . The museum also has
147-507: Is a clear precursor to the Alice class locomotives that became the mainstay of the quarry fleet. The original waterwheel that powered the complex was built by the Caernarfon firm of De Winton in 1870, and remained in use until 1926, when it was replaced by a Pelton wheel turbine. Both waterwheels are still in place at the site. By 1890, the quarry was the second most productive slate quarry in
168-689: Is sometimes referred to as the Dinorwic Tramroad or the Dinorwic Tramway . The Dinorwic slate quarry was purchased in 1809 by a group of investors led by Thomas Assheton-Smith and a significant expansion was started. Better transportation to the coast was required to handle the new production levels. Until 1812 slate for sale beyond the locality was sent by packhorse ("hampers on horseback") then sometimes by boat across Llyn Padarn then by cart to Caernarfon to be forwarded by sea. This slow, labour-intensive process could cost more and take longer for
189-520: Is the second largest in Britain at 15.4 metres (51 ft). 53°07′16″N 4°06′55″W / 53.1210°N 4.1152°W / 53.1210; -4.1152 Dinorwic Railway The Dinorwic Railway was an early 2 ft ( 610 mm ) narrow gauge industrial railway connecting the slate quarry at Dinorwic in Caernarvonshire with the coastal port at Y Felinheli . The line
210-601: The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) and part of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales . The workshops which served the needs of the quarry and its locomotives, were built in 1870 on land created from the continuous tipping of spoil from the adjacent Vivian Quarry, and as a replacement for the store sheds which were previously sited there. Rail access to the works was by both 1 ft 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 597 mm ) narrow gauge (the quarry gauge) and 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) narrow gauge (that of
231-622: The Padarn Railway which carried the slate from the quarry to Port Dinorwic ). Rails also entered the main yard through the main entrance. The quarry closed in 1969 and the site was opened on 25 May 1972 as the North Wales Quarrying Museum. The museum is now connected to the nearby village of Llanberis by the Llanberis Lake Railway , which uses part of the building as its workshops. The museum reopened after receiving
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#1732848224166252-590: The general route of the Slate Road from the highlands of The Braich northwest to near the coast, where it swung west to approach the creek on its northern side. All traffic was horse-drawn, with stables at Allt-Ddu, at the foot of the Craig Llwyd incline, at "Stablau Newydd" where the line came near the Slate Road and at the head of the Garth Incline. Port horses and manpower were used at the port itself. Between inclines
273-484: The hamlet of Moel y Don on Anglesey. At this stage slate was sent from shore to ship using lighters . Also in 1812, railways and inclines were introduced within the quarry. By 1823, plans were being made to construct a railway from the quarry to the port, and construction began in June 1824, though Boyd gives the opening as "by 1824". By 1825 quarry records show slate shipments being made by rail. The new railway followed
294-481: The largest working waterwheel in mainland Britain, which is available for viewing via several walkways. The waterwheel was constructed in 1870 by De Winton of Caernarfon and is 50 ft 5 in (15.37 m) in diameter, 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) wide and was built around a 12 in (305 mm) axle. Close to the museum is the partly restored Vivian incline, a gravity balance incline where loaded slate wagons haul empty wagons back up. The museum owns
315-470: The machinery used in the quarry. The complex includes saw sheds, patternmaking shops, a foundry with cupola, blacksmiths shops, fitting shops, stores, engine sheds, a canteen, the chief engineer's house, a hand operated crane and two waterwheels which provided the site with its power. Since 1972, the buildings have housed the National Slate Museum . Quarrying started at Dinorwic around 1700, under
336-469: The ownership of the Assheton-Smith family . In 1787 however, the area was leased to a group of English industrialists, who established the current Dinorwic quarry, building the first incline of the quarry in 1790. Transporting slate from Dinorwic was initially highly cumbersome, involving carting it down a steep road to the nearby Llyn Padarn before shipping it downriver to the sea. Proper development
357-408: The route was either level or favoured loads, though it was never "gravity worked". The inclines were "balanced" and "self-acting", i.e. the extra weight of a descending rake of loaded wagons lifted a corresponding rake of empties, with the rope, cable or chain passing round a braked drum to enable staff to maintain control. Although the railway was a significant improvement on what went before, it had
378-503: The seven miles from quarry to shore than from Caernarfon to Liverpool. In that year a trackway known as the "Slate Road" for horse-hauled sleds was opened leading without interruption from the quarry to the creek at Y Felinheli on the Menai Strait , sometimes known then as Aber Pwll and sometimes, confusingly, as Moel y Don because it was the mainland embarkation point for the Moel y Don ferry to
399-596: The shore of Llyn Padarn and on to Port Dinorwic. In 1848, steam locomotives were introduced on the railway. Between 1869 and 1870, the workshops were built at the north end of the Padarn Railway. They were constructed on land reclaimed from the lake using waste slate from the quarry. That same year, steam locomotives were introduced within the quarry when an order was placed with the Hunslet Engine Company . They produced Dinorwic (works number 51 of 1870), which
420-450: The world, after the nearby Penrhyn quarry . The site remained in use until 1969, when the quarry and workshops were shut down. At the auction of the quarry in December 1969, the workshops were purchased by Carnarvonshire County Council to house the North Wales Quarrying Museum. This opened on 26 May 1972. It is now named the National Slate Museum of Wales. The complex is built around
441-436: Was prevented by the tax increases caused by the outbreak of war between England and France in 1792. In the 1830s, an extensive narrow-gauge tramway system was built within the quarry. The horse-worked 2 ft ( 610 mm ) gauge Dinorwic Railway was built in 1824, connecting the quarry to the coast at Port Dinorwic . This was replaced in 1843 by the 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) gauge Padarn Railway running along
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