The Oakeley slate quarry was the largest underground slate mine in the world,[1] but it suffered from a sharp decline in worldwide demand for slate after the Second World War. As quarrying declined in the 1970s, the owners sought to diversify to serve the growing tourist trade in Wales. In 1974 the abandoned Middle Quarry was re-opened, producing architectural slab, and as an attraction to the public - the Gloddfa Ganol Mountain Center. The centre offered guided tours of several miles of underground tunnels and chambers and was based in the old Middle Mill, which had been rebuilt for the purpose.[2]
Rich Morris collection
Railway enthusiast Rich Morris began collecting narrow gauge rolling stock in 1963, when he purchased a metre gauge Ruston Proctor locomotive from a china clay mine in St Austell.[3] He continued to purchase locomotives from across the United Kingdom, initially storing items at his house in Bampton in Oxfordshire. In 1974, he moved to Longfield in Kent, but the collection soon outgrew the storage capacity of his garden.[4] In 1976, Morris arranged to move some of his locomotives to Pen-yr-Orsedd slate quarry in North Wales where he planned to set up a museum to exhibit his collection and tell the story of narrow gauge industrial railways.[3]
Pen-yr-Orsedd was owned by The Festiniog Group, which owned several slate quarries across North Wales. In 1977, the company consolidated their activities in their quarries in Blaenau Ffestiniog and closed down Pen-yr-Orsedd.[5] They offered space to the Morris collection at their largest quarry, Oakeley.
The Narrow Gauge Railway Centre
A new company, Narrow Gauge Enterprises, was set up to oversee the new museum at Gloddfa Ganol. Morris moved most of his collection to the Gloddfa Ganol Mountain Centre starting in May 1978, with the majority being moved on five articulated lorries on 23 June. Some exhibits initially went into storage in an annexe in Blaenau Ffestiniog. As well as Morris' collection, locomotives belonging to Pete Nicholson were moved from the Brockham Railway Museum near Dorking on 18 July. By September of that year, all the equipment had been moved from Pen-yr-Orsedd, and more than 70 locomotives were on site.[6]
The collection was initially housed in a new Exhibition Hall, with some locomotives scattered outside. This hall was adapted from the disused winding house of the Dafydd Glanamarchincline.[6]
Around 1985 Holland's Lower Mill, which had been demolished many years previously, was rebuilt and the railway collection was moved there. This mill was on the west end of the Gloddfa Ganol site, and in 1987, a short railway was laid to connect the main car park to the mill. It opened for the 1988 season, with three Motor Rail locomotives running passenger trains along this line.[7]
Ran at the Lullymore Briquetting Factory in Ireland. Purchased by Michael Jacob in 1973 and moved to the Brockham Railway Museum in December.[11] Later purchased by Rich Morris and moved to Gloddfa Ganol. The only example of its type on the British Isles.[6]
Built for the Provan Gas Works in Glasgow. Sold for scrap in 1961, but purchased by Rich Morris in May 1963.[15] Converted to 2ft (610mm) and fitted with a cab and saddle tank at Eynsford.
ex-Llechwedd quarry, where it was dismantled to convert into an overhead-wire electric locomotive, though conversion did not take place.[19] Parts purchased by Rich Morris in 1973.[20]
Built for the RAF for the aerodrome at Eastburn near Driffield. Worked on five reservoir construction projects across the UK. In 1942 it was purchased for use at the Woodthorpe Hall colliery, connected to the Ashover Light Railway. Purchased for private use by J. L. Baker of Erdington at his farm at Brockamin. Sold to Alan Maund who restored it to working order. Sold on to Rich Morris in 1971. Moved to Gloddfa Ganol in March 1978. Loaned to the Bala Lake Railway from 1982 to 1985.[21]
Worked at the West Kent Main Sewage Board, Littlebrook, Kent. Purchased by Rich Morris.[31] The second oldest Ruston Hornsby locomotive in existence.[citation needed]
Originally 18in (457mm). Supplied to the Crowle Brickworks near Scunthorpe. Purchased by Rich Morris in October 1970, regauge to 2ft (610mm) in 1972.[33]
Originally 18in (457mm) gauge and used at the Saltlands Tileries, near Bridgwater. Purchased by Rich Morris in 1969, and converted to 2ft (610mm) gauge in 1971.[33]
Joffre class. Worked at the quarry of Carriers de la Vallee Heureuse, in France in June 1930. Moved to the Yaxham Light Railway after the closure of Gloddfa Ganol,[42]
On 8 October 1997 it was announced that Alfred McAlpine Slate had taken over the Ffestiniog Slate group, including the Oakeley quarry. McAlpines immediately announced that Gloddfa Ganol would close at the end of the year.[51] The majority of the locomotive collection was auctioned in February 1998. By June 1998, only three locomotives remained on the site.[25]
Rich Morris retained his collection of portable industrial monorail equipment, designed by Road Machines (Drayton) Ltd and used for construction projects in the mid 20th century,[52] along with the remains of the Gloddfa Ganol collection: Listers 39005 and 14005, one standard gauge Wickham trolley and Rail Taxi.[22]
The Ffestiniog Railway is a heritage railway based on 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park.
Blaenau Ffestiniog is a town in Gwynedd, Wales. Once a slate mining centre in historic Merionethshire, it now relies much on tourists, drawn for instance to the Ffestiniog Railway and Llechwedd Slate Caverns. It reached a population of 12,000 at the peak development of the slate industry, but fell with the decline in demand for slate. The population of the community, including the nearby village Llan Ffestiniog, was 4,875 at the 2011 census: the fourth most populous in Gwynedd after Bangor, Caernarfon and Llandeiniolen. The population not including Llan is now only about 4,000.
The National Slate 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.
Allt-fawr is a mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales and forms part of the Moelwynion group.
Minffordd railway station is a pair of adjacent stations on separate lines in Gwynedd, Wales. The mainline station opened as Minfford Junction on 1 August 1872 at the point where the then recently built Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway line from Dovey Junction to Pwllheli passes under the earlier narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway. The latter was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog for export by sea, and had carried passengers from 1865 onwards. The station was renamed Minffordd in 1890.
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.
Plas Halt is an unstaffed halt on the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway in Wales, which was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog for export by sea.
Llechwedd is a visitor attraction near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales. It details the history of slate quarrying in the town and specifically the Llechwedd quarry in which it is located. The main aspect of Llechwedd is its Llechwedd Deep Mine Tour which has the steepest narrow gauge railway in the UK and travels over 500 feet underground to the disused slate caverns, and the Quarry Explorer Tour which heads out to the furthest reaches of the Llechwedd site to explore the history of mining in the area.
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 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 a variety of uses including flooring, worktops and headstones.
Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry was a slate quarry in the Nantlle Valley in North Wales. It was one of the last slate quarries operating in North Wales and the last operating in the Nantlle Valley area, finally closing in 1979.
Llechwedd quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. At its peak in 1884 it produced 23,788 tons of finished slate per year and had 513 employees. It continues to produce slate on a limited scale and is the location of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns tourist attraction.
Maenofferen quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales and one of the major users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It continues to produce crushed slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry.
Oakeley quarry is a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was the largest underground slate mine in the world, and had 26 floors spanning a vertical height of nearly 1,500 feet (460 m).
Chaloner is a preserved narrow-gauge steam locomotive. It was built in 1877 at De Winton's Union Works in Caernarfon and is an example of their distinctive vertical-boilered design, used in the North Wales slate industry.
Cilgwyn quarry is a slate quarry located on the north edge of the Nantlle Valley, in North Wales. It is one of the earliest slate quarries in Great Britain, having been worked as early as the 12th century. King Edward I of England was reputed to have stayed in a house roofed by Cilgwyn slates during his conquest of Wales. It is one of the major slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley area.
Graig Ddu quarry is a disused slate quarry near Blaenau Ffestiniog, in Gwynedd, North Wales. Although output was only about 3,000 tons a year, it reputedly has 36 saw tables and the same number of dressing machines on site. As with others in the area, the quarry suffered from a lack of water, resulting in the siting of the mill some distance away, at a lower level.
Nyth-y-Gigfran quarry was a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales. It was located about 300 feet (91 m) above the settlement of Glan y Pwll, south of what was to become Blaenau Ffestiniog. The quarry was sited on the steep cliffs that form the eastern edge of Allt-fawr and was entirely underground. The quarry opened around 1840 and became part of the Oakeley quarry in the 1880s; this in turn closed in 1969.
Diana is a narrow gauge 0-4-0T steam locomotive. It was built by Kerr, Stuart and Company in 1909, and was delivered to the Kerry Tramway in Mid Wales, in 1917. After varied service in the Welsh slate industry, Diana was purchased by railway enthusiast Graham Mullis in 1964. After many years at a variety of location, Diana was purchased by a Talyllyn Railway volunteer in 2014, and restored to working order in 2015.
Baguley 774 is one of the earliest surviving narrow-gauge internal combustion locomotives. It was built in 1919 for the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade. After a varied career, it was preserved at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Tywyn.
The Brockham Railway Museum was a 2 ft narrow gauge railway based at the site of the Brockham Limeworks, near Dorking, Surrey. When it closed in 1982, the majority of the collection was moved to the Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre where it formed the nucleus of the Amberley Museum Railway.
References
↑ Jones, R. Merfyn (1981). The North Wales Quarrymen, 1874–1922 (Studies in Welsh history; 4.). University of Wales Press. ISBN0-7083-0776-0.
↑ Isherwood, J.G. (1988). Slate - from Blaenau Ffestiniog. AB Publishing.
1 2 3 Swift, Mike. "Twenty Five Years of Narrow Gauge Preservation". The Narrow Gauge. No.73. The Narrow Gauge Railway Society.
1 2 Quine, Dan (February 2017). "A history of Baguley 774". Talyllyn News.
↑ "Una to receive historic livery". Railway Magazine. Vol.151. IPC Business Press. 2005.
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