Dinorwic Quarry

Vivian quarry, part of the Dinorwic Quarry

The Incline at the Quarry.

[v · d · e]Llanberis Lake Railway
Legend Padarn Railway Pen-Y-Llyn Passing loop Cel Llydan Gilfach Ddu Dinorwic Quarry Llyn Padarn Llanberis Carnarvonshire Railway Snowdon Mountain Railway

The Dinorwic Slate Quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry.^[1]. It covered more than 700 acres (2.8 km²) consisting of two main quarry sections with 20 galleries in each and a number of ancillary workings. Extensive internal tramway systems connected the quarries using inclines to transport slate between galleries.^[2]

History

The Dinorwic Quarry, showing the major inclines, mills, levels and tramways, along with the Padarn Railway and Dinorwic Railway

The first commercial attempts at slate mining took place in 1787, when a private partnership obtained a lease from the landowner, Assheton Smith. Although this met with moderate success, the outbreak of war with France, taxes and transportation costs limited the development of the quarry. A new business partnership led by Assheton Smith himself was formed on the expiry of the lease in 1809 and the business boomed after the construction of a horse-drawn tramway to Port Dinorwic in 1824. At its peak in the late 19th century, "when it was producing an annual outcome of 100,000 tonnes", Dinorwic employed over 3,000 men and was the second largest opencast slate producer in the country. Although by 1930 its working employment had dropped to 2,000, it kept a steady production until 1969.

Railways to Port Dinorwic

The original connection between the quarry and the company's port at Y Felinheli was the Dinorwic Railway, a 2 ft  (610 mm) gauge line built in 1824. This was worked by horses and it soon became apparent that it was inadequate for the traffic generated by the quarry. A number of surveys of alternative routes were undertaken by members of the Spooner family, the result of which was the construction of a new railway which opened in 1848: the 4 ft  (1,219 mm) gauge Padarn Railway which operated as the quarry's main transport link until closure in 1961.^[2]

Internal tramways

The first use of railways at the quarry came around 1800 when the first internal tramways were in use. These first lines were worked using horse- and hand- power. For the next seventy years the tramway system grew until it reached the point where more powerful traction was required. The first steam locomotives used were small vertical boilered locos supplied by De Winton's of Caernarfon. In 1870 the first locomotive supplied by the Hunslet Engine Company arrived at the quarry, and the majority of the locomotives that worked at Dinorwic were eventually supplied by Hunslet.^[2]

Between 1935 and 1949 the Quarry acquired 22 light internal combustion rail tractors for use on the levels. Half of these were new, the other half second-hand. Their survival rate did not match those of the steam locomotives, and when the quarry closed in 1969 only 3 still survived.

Although a nominal "2 foot gauge", the actual gauge between the rails at Dinorwic was 1 ft 10¾in (577mm)^[3] in common with its neighbour Penrhyn, but fractionally narrower than the public lines of the Ffestiniog Railway or North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway which were 1 ft 11½in (600mm).

Steam locomotives used in the Quarry

Early steam locomotives used by the Quarry, and built by de Winton & Co :

Orig. name / number	Later name	Builder	Year of acquisition	Year of sale
Wellington	-	de Winton	c1870	1898
Harriet	-	de Winton	1874	pre 1895
Peris	-	de Winton	1875	pre 1895
Victoria	-	de Winton	1876	pre 1895
Padarn	-	de Winton	c1898	?

From 1870 the Quarry acquired most of its locomotives new from the Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd. of Leeds. These were purpose built, and after 1886 these fell into one of 3 classes, as shown below, depending on their intended use in the quarry.

However, prior to the designation of the classes, the Quarry also used a number of other "unclassified" locomotives :

Orig. name / number	Later name	Builder	Year of acquisition	Year of sale
Dinorwic	Charlie	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1870	by 1919
George	Minstrel Park	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1877	by 1919
Louisa	-	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1877	by 1989
Sybil	-	W.G.Bagnall Ltd.	1906	?
No.70	-	A.Barclay & Sons Co. Ltd.	1931	1962
Elidir	-	Avonside Engine Co. Ltd.	1933	1966

Steam locomotives in the "Alice" class were small, and designed for light work on the quarry levels :

Orig. name / number	Later name	Builder	Year of acquisition	Year of sale
Velinheli	-	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1886	?
Alice	King of the Scarlets	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1889	1965
Enid	Red Damsel	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1889	1969
No.1	Rough Pup	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1891	1968
No.2	Cloister	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1892	1962
The First	Bernstein	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1892	1967
The Second	Covercoat	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1898	1964
Wellington	George B.	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1898	1965
No.3	Holy War	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1902	1968
No.4	Alice	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1902	1972
No.5	Maid Marian (briefly Covertcoat)	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1903	1966
No.6	Irish Mail	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1903	1969
No.7	Wild Aster	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1904	1969

The larger "Port" Class steam locomotives were designed primarily to work at Port Dinorwic (though "Michael" never did) :

Orig. name / number	Later name	Builder	Year of acquisition	Tear of sale
No.1	Lady Joan > No.1	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1922	1967
No.2	Dolbadarn	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1922	1969
Michael	-	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1932	1965

The steam locomotives in the "Tram" or "Mills" Class worked on marshalling duties on the Padarn - Peris Tram Line, which linked the quarry mills to the Padarn Railway (for transportation to Port Dinorwic) :

Orig. name / number	Later name	Builder	Year of acquisition	Year of sale
Vaenol	Jerry M	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1895	1967
Port Dinorwic	Cackler	Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd.	1898	1966

Slate removal

The slate vein at Dinorwic is nearly vertical and lies at or near the surface of the mountain, allowing it to be worked in a series of stepped galleries^{[citation needed]}.

Closure

The quarry closed in July 1969, the result of industry decline and difficult slate removal ^[2]. During the 1950s and 1960s extraction had become difficult, because after 170 years of extraction many of the unsystematically dumped tips were beginning to slide into some of the major pit workings, and after an enormous fall in the Garret area of the quarry in 1966, production had ceased almost permanently. It was however decided that some final work could be done by clearing some of the waste from the Garret fall. This involved making an access road for more modern quarry vehicles across some of the terraces, to the rock fall. This amount of slate won by this method was small and all production stopped by 1969.

At the Receiver's instruction a public auction was arranged, intended to pay off some of the quarry's debts. The auctions were held on 12 and 13 December 1969. The auctioneer's national advertisement (in The Guardian 29 November 1969), the event was described as "An auction sale of machine tools and stocks, four Hunslet locos, and engine and boat fittings". The locomotives referred to, lots 613 - 616, were "Dolbadarn", Red Damsel", "Wild Aster" and "Irish Mail". Before the bidding started, it was announced that Gwynedd County Council had placed a Preservation Order on the Gilfach Ddu workshops, and many items within it.

Marchlyn quarry

The nearby Marchlyn quarry was opened in the 1930s to provide access to the main slate vein higher up the mountain.

After closure

The Welsh Slate Museum located in Gilfach Ddu

Following closure the quarry's workshop, Gilfach Ddu was acquired by the National Museum of Wales and now houses the National Slate Museum. Equipment from the internal quarry railway was used to build the Llanberis Lake Railway over part of the trackbed of the Padarn Railway.

The quarry has been partly reused as part of the Dinorwig power station, a pumped storage hydroelectric scheme.

Many of the little Hunslet locomotives built to work in the quarry and at the port have been preserved on several of Britain's narrow gauge heritage railways. More recently, new build versions of the class have been built by the Exmoor Steam Railway, and by a new Hunslet company at the Statfold Barn Railway.

Part of the film Willow was shot in the disused Dinorwic Quarry, in June 1987 on some of the lower terraces next to the Pumped storage scheme. Scenes from Street Fighter were filmed on the south side of "Watford Gap" near the Matilda hole. As of July 2009 the Harriet hole is the site for one of the sets of the new film Clash of the Titans.

The quarries are now also used as an adventure rock climbing venue. The Blue Peris Mountain Centre, operated by Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council, conducts various outdoor activities at the quarries.

References

1. ^ Jones, R. Merfyn. 1981. The North Wales quarrymen, 1874-1922 Studies in Welsh history 4. University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0776-0
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Carrington D.C. and Rushworth T.F. (1972). Slates to Velinheli: The Railways and Tramways of Dinorwic Slate Quarries, Llanberis and the Llanberis Lake Railway. Maid Marian Locomotive Fund. 
3. ^ "Industrial Railways - Dinorwic Quarries and Padarn Railway". Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. http://www.ngrm.net/Collections/IndustrialRailways/DinorwicQuarries. 

• "Penmorfa article on Dinorwic". http://www.penmorfa.com/Slate/dinorwic.html. 
• Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire: Volume 3. Boyd, James I.C. (1986). The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-328-1.

External links

Media related to Dinorwic Quarry at Wikimedia Commons

• AditNow - Photographic database of Dinorwic Slate Quarry
• Penmorfa - Brief history of Dinorwic
• Clash of the Titans Filming Locations
• Blue Peris Mountain Centre

Coordinates: 53°07′34″N 4°05′53″W / 53.12611°N 4.09806°W / 53.12611; -4.09806