DINORWIC QUARRY

The 'Dinorwic Slate Quarry' is a large slate quarry located between the town of Llanberis and the village of Dinorwig in north Wales. It was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, indeed in the world, after the neighbouring Penrhyn Quarry.^[1]

Contents

History

Transportation

Steam locomotives used in the Quarry

Slate Removal

Closure

Marchlyn quarry

After closure

See also

References

External Links

History

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 Dinorwig in 1824. At its peak in the late 1800s, 'when it was producing an annual oucome of 100,00 tonnes', Dinorwig 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.

Transportation

The gauge Padarn Railway connected the quarry to Port Dinorwic on the coast. Internally the quarry used an extensive system of gauge railways serving the mills and quarries.
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.

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 .

Closure

The quarry closed in 1969, the result of industry decline and difficult slate removal. During the 1950s and 1960s extraction had became 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 12th & 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

Following closure the quarry's workshop, Gilfach Ddu was acquired by the National Museum of Wales and now houses the Welsh 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 pumped storage hydroelectric power station.

See also

★ Slate industry in Wales

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


★ Penmorfa article on Dinorwic

★ ''Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire: Volume 3''. Boyd, James I.C. (1986). The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-328-1.

External Links

★ AditNow - Photographic database of Dinorwic Slate Quarry

★ Penmorfa - Brief history of Dinorwic