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ABOVE LEFT - a small group of Welsh slate miners in the late 1800s.
RIGHT - workers in a slate cutting mill where the raw slate was cut into roofing slates on huge circular saw tables. There is little difference in what we see of the quarry today to it's state at the time of the Great War apart from the obvious enlargement of the various quarry faces and the deepening of the sinks; certainly all the main inclines were in place then and very little changed before final closure in July 1969. The eventual demise of the quarry was mainly due to the fact that spoil had been carelessly dumped with little consideration for continued operation of the quarry in the future. The spoil heaps began to become unstable and there were several small land slides into some of the major workings. The only possible remedy for the problem was the wholesale removal of huge quantities of spoil and naturally the work and financial outlay involved to do this would render the quarry economically unviable. In 1966 after an enormous slide in the Garret area of the quarry, production practically ceased with the exception of a small amount of slate extracted after the removal of the debris. Just three years later the time had come to close the quarry for good. There is little difference in what we see of the quarry today to it's state at the time of the Great War apart from the obvious enlargement of the various quarry faces and the deepening of the sinks; certainly all the main inclines were in place then and very little changed before final closure in July 1969. The eventual demise of the quarry was mainly due to the fact that spoil had been carelessly dumped with little consideration for continued operation of the quarry in the future. The spoil heaps began to become unstable and there were several small land slides into some of the major workings. The only possible remedy for the problem was the wholesale removal of huge quantities of spoil and naturally the work and financial outlay involved to do this would render the quarry economically unviable. In 1966 after an enormous slide in the Garret area of the quarry, production practically ceased with the exception of a small amount of slate extracted after the removal of the debris. Just three years later the time had come to close the quarry for good. At the Receiver's instruction public auctions were arranged on the 12th. and 13th. of December, 1969. to pay off some of the quarry's debts. The auctioneer's national advertisement in The Guardian, of 29th. November 1969, described the event as, "An auction sale of machine tools and stocks, four Hunslet locos, and engine and boat fittings". Following closure the quarry's workshop, Gilfach Ddu, was acquired by the National Museum of Wales and now houses the National Slate Museum. Redundant equipment from the quarry railway was used to build the Llanberis Lake Railway and many of the little Hunslet locomotives built to work in the quarry have subsequently been preserved on several of Britain's narrow gauge heritage railways. The quarry has also been utilised as the lower catchment reservoir for the Dinorwic pumped storage hydroelectric electricity generation system. In order to generate huge amounts of electricity practically instantaneously at times of peak demand water is dropped from a reservoir situated above the quarry through the hydro-electric generators, and it emerges at the bottom of the mountain where it runs into the lake. Then when peak demand has fallen back off again the water is pumped back up to the top reservoir. It is said that Dinorwic's engineers read the TV schedule papers and watch popular programmes go out in order to be ready for ad break brew time!
Towards the beginning of 2012 we decided we would set up an aquarium at home in our lounge and there is nothing prettier as part of the background scattered amongst aquatic plants than greeny-blue Welsh or Cumbrian slate. Best of all, Dinorwic's seam is not just one fetching cyan/blue shade, it is liberally run through with purple and dark blue deposits too, so we were easily able to select a nice mix. After wandering around the quarry for the best part of five hours getting thoroughly knackered climbing the steep inclines right up to the Australia Levels, we staggered back to the car with armfuls and bulging coat pockets full of interesting shapes and shades, puffing and panting with the load! What better way to spend a day than combining a visit with a purpose with an urban exploration - the only other alternative I could come up with off the top of my head was Hodge Close which is pretty much the same distance away from here up beyond Windermere! Sadly Hodge has no "on site urbex"... no contest! To the LEFT is a photo of the tank immediately after landscaping and initial planting just in case you are curious!
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The
Dinorwic Slate Quarry ceased operation as an active quarry some 40 plus
years ago. It is located in north
The
first commercial attempts at slate mining at Dinorwic began in 1787 when a
private partnership sought a lease from the landowner, Assheton Smith.
Although this enterprise was moderately successful the outbreak of
the war with Napoleon Bonaparte's
The slate vein at
Dinorwic is nearly vertical and lies at or near the surface of the
mountain which of course made it very convenient to extract. It was worked
in a series of stepped galleries
