Location | |
---|---|
Location in Denbighshire | |
Location | near Glyndyfrdwy |
County | Merionethshire (now Denbighshire) |
Country | Wales, UK |
Coordinates | 52°57′08″N3°17′30″W / 52.95222°N 3.29167°W SJ 132 402 |
Production | |
Products | Slate |
Type | Quarry |
History | |
Opened | 1870 1876 (Moelfferna quarry) | (Deeside quarry)
Closed | 1947 |
Railways | |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) (in quarries); [1] 2 ft 7 in (787 mm) (main) [1] |
The Deeside and Moelfferna quarries were neighbouring slate quarries, near Glyndyfrdwy in North Wales. They were both operated by the same company throughout their history, and were both connected by the Deeside Tramway to the Llangollen and Corwen Railway.
The original owner of the Deeside quarry was the 1870 Dee Side Slate and Slab Quarry Ltd. [2] The company was sold in 1875. [3]
In 1876, the Moelferna and Dee Side Slate and Slab Quarries Company was formed to purchase both the Deeside quarry and the Moelfferna quarry. [4]
In 1885, the quarries supplied a large slab cistern to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin. The tank measured 50 feet (15 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) by 5 feet (1.5 m) and was believed to be one of the largest stone tank built at the time. [5]
In 1907 there was a serious accident at the quarry. Edward Rowlands was riding on a loaded slate wagon that was sent down from the Deeside quarry to the head of the incline down to Glyndyfrdwy. Rowlands was on the first wagon of a sequence of four, with the quarry manager Richard Roberts following in a second loaded wagon. The brake failed on the fourth wagon and it gathered speed; the quarryman leapt from the wagon and shouted a warning to the men ahead. The quarryman on the third wagon also jumped free, and the two out-of-control wagons collided with Robert's wagon. He jumped, but sustained serious injuries. The three wagons then hit Rowlands' wagon, derailing all four wagons and causing Rowlands fatal injuries to the lower body. [6]
In 1915, two men, Robert Jones and John Lloyd, were crushed by an unexpected rockfall, weighing 100 tons, in the quarry. [7]
After the First World War, the chairman of the company was Percy Dean, who was the MP for Blackburn. [8]
The Deeside quarry ceased working in the 1920s, but the Deeside slate works continued in production using slate from Moelfferna quarry. The enterprise closed in 1947. [9] [10]
The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Deeside Tramway connected the two quarries to the Deeside Slate Works and on down to the transhipment wharf at Glyndyfrdwy. The tramway originally ran between the slate works and Deeside quarry, before being extended in the late 1870s down to the wharf.
Several beds of Ordovician shales and mudstones run across Mid Wales, from Tywyn in the south-west to Chirk in the north-east. At various points along this band, these sedimentary rocks have undergone compression and metamorphosis into slate.
The Pen-y-glog slate veins on the southern slopes of the Dee valley are worked by the quarries. [11]
The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow-gauge railways situated at the Tywyn Wharf station of the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales.
The River Dee is a river flowing through North Wales, and through Cheshire, England, in Great Britain. The length of the main section from Bala to Chester is 113 km and it is largely located in Wales. The stretch between Aldford and Chester is within England, and two other sections form the border between the two countries.
Corwen is a town and community in the county of Denbighshire in Wales. Historically, Corwen was part of the county of Merionethshire. Corwen stands on the banks of the River Dee beneath the Berwyn mountains. The town is situated 10 miles (16 km) west of Llangollen and 13 miles (21 km) south of Ruthin. At the 2011 Census, Corwen had a population of 2,325, decreasing slightly from the 2001 population of 2,398, The community, with an area of 69.51 km2 (26.84 sq mi), includes Corwen and the surrounding villages of Carrog, Clawdd Poncen and Glyndyfrdwy. The Office for National Statistics identifies Corwen Built-up area with a 2011 population of 477 and an area of 0.25 km2 (0.097 sq mi).
The Llangollen Railway is a volunteer-run heritage railway in Denbighshire, North Wales, which operates between Llangollen and Corwen. The standard gauge line, which is 10 miles (16 km) long, runs on part of the former Ruabon – Barmouth GWR route that closed in 1965. It operates daily services in the summer as well as weekends throughout the winter months, using a variety of mainly ex-GWR steam locomotives as well as several diesel engines and diesel multiple units. A 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) extension of the railway has been built to complete the line to Corwen.
Glyndyfrdwy, or sometimes Glyn Dyfrdwy, is a village in the modern county of Denbighshire, Wales. It is situated on the A5 road halfway between Corwen and Llangollen in the Dee Valley.
Braichgoch slate mine was a large slate mine located in Corris Uchaf, north Wales. It operated continuously from 1787 until its closure in 1970, apart from a hiatus in the 1900s. Most of the surface workings of the quarry were removed as part of a road widening and landscaping scheme in 1983.
The Gorseddau Tramway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway built in Wales in 1856 to link the slate quarries around Gorseddau with the wharves at Porthmadog. It was an early forerunner of the Gorseddau Junction and Portmadoc Railway and subsequently the Welsh Highland Railway.
The Hendre-Ddu Tramway was a 1 ft 11 in narrow gauge industrial railway built in 1874 in Mid-Wales to connect the Hendre-Ddu slate quarry to Aberangell station on the Mawddwy Railway. It consisted of a main line 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) long and several branch lines and spurs serving other quarries, local farms and the timber industry.
The Ruabon–Barmouth line was a standard-gauge line owned by the Great Western Railway across the north of Wales which connected Ruabon, in the east, with Barmouth on the west coast.
The Eglwyseg valley is an area to the north east of Llangollen in Denbighshire, Wales; it is within the boundaries of Llantysilio Community. The name also refers to a widely scattered hamlet in the valley.
The Deeside Tramway was a gravity and horse-worked, 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge industrial railway connecting the slate workings on the Dee valley with the main road at Glyndyfrdwy and later the Great Western Railway's Ruabon-Dolgellau railway. It was one of the last tramways in regular use to use wooden rails covered in iron sheaths.
Corwen F.C. is a Welsh football club based in Corwen, Denbighshire. They currently play in the North East Wales Football League Premier Division, which is at tier four of the Welsh football pyramid.
The car gwyllt is a Welsh invention used by quarrymen to ride downhill on the steep inclined planes of a slate quarry.
Townshend Mainwaring was a British Conservative Party politician.
The Abercwmeiddaw quarry was a slate quarry that operated between the 1840s and 1938. It was located at Corris Uchaf about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Machynlleth, in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The quarry was connected to the Corris Railway via the Upper Corris Tramway which carried its products to the Cambrian Railways at Machynlleth for distribution.
The Cwm Ebol quarry was a slate quarry about 1 mile (1.6 km) north west of the village of Pennal in Mid Wales. It operated from about 1860 to about 1906. It was the last Welsh slate quarry connected only to a trans-shipment point instead of directly to a railway.
The Pantdreiniog quarry was a slate quarry within the town of Bethesda in North Wales. It was worked between about 1825 and 1923. It played a significant part in the Penrhyn Great Strike, Britain's longest industrial dispute.
Frongoch slate quarry was a slate quarry and mine in Mid Wales, approximately halfway between Aberdyfi and Pennal. The quarry was named after a nearby farm of the same name. 'Fron goch' is Welsh for 'Red breast'.
The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) located in north-east Wales, covering the Clwydian Range, and the valley of the River Dee.
Oernant Tramway refers to a horse-drawn tramway which connected slate quarries located to the North-West of Llangollen with the Pentrefelin canal wharves at Llantysilio. It is simply referred to as "the tramway" in contemporary publications and appears to have been entirely owned by the Llangollen Slate and Slab Company. The tramway was built in the 1850s, reaching a maximum length approaching seven miles by 1857, and was used until about 1892. It had gravity-worked inclines, and was horse drawn on the level sections.
Media related to Deeside and Moelfferna quarries at Wikimedia Commons