Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry explained

Pen-yr-Orsedd
Width:250px
Pushpin Map:Wales Gwynedd
Pushpin Mapsize:250px
Pushpin Map Alt:Map of Gwynedd showing the position of the quarry
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Gwynedd
Coordinates:
Place:near Nantlle
Subdivision Type:County
State/Province:Carnarvonshire (now Gwynedd)
Country:Wales, UK
Products:Slate
Type:Quarry
Module:
Embed:yes
Tramways
Open:1862
Close:1979
Gauge:

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.

History

Pen-yr-Orsedd opened in 1816, owned by William Turner who was also the owner of the nearby Dorothea quarry and the Diphwys Casson quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog. It was acquired on 1854 by John Lloyd Jones who sold it on to the Darbishire Company, owners of the Penmaenmawr granite quarries, in 1862. The new owners invested £20,000 to expand the quarry, though with limited results; by 1871 the quarry was producing just 500 tons per year. William Darbishire took over direct management of the quarry that year and by 1882 had raised production to almost 8,000 tons.[1]

Pen-yr-Orsedd was one of the major slate producers of the Nantlle Valley. It was the last of the Nantlle quarries to commercially produce slate, closing in 1979.

Narrow-gauge railway museum

Railway enthusiast Rich Morris began collecting narrow gauge rolling stock in 1963,[2] storing many at his home in Longfield in Kent.[3] As the collection grew he sought a more permanent arrangement and in 1976, he came to an agreement with the Festiniog Slate Group to move many of his locomotives to Pen-yr-Orsedd, where he planned to set up a museum to exhibit his collection and tell the story of narrow gauge industrial railways.[2]

With the closure of Pen-yr-Orsedd, The Festiniog Group offered Morris space for his collection at their largest quarry, Oakeley. Morris' collection was moved there in May 1978. Further collections were brought to Oakeley and the Narrow Gauge Railway Centre was opened in the Gloddfa Ganol tourist attraction.

Tramways

In 1862 the quarry was connected to the Nantlle Railway, with narrow gauge lines extended to all but the highest levels of the quarry. Most levels of the quarry had both gauge and gauge trackwork, many with mixed gauge tracks. The Nantlle Railway connection was used up until 1963, while the internal gauge lines continued in limited use until the end of quarrying.

Locomotives

NameBuilderTypeWorks numberDateNotes
BaladeulynDe WintonSold to Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry in 1895
StarstoneDe WintonThought to be sold to Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry in 1894 where it was renamed Padarn.
InverlochyDe Winton1877Possible ex-Pen-y-Bryn Quarry. Scrapped 1937.
GlynllifonDe Winton1880Scrapped 1937
RhymneyDe Winton1875Scrapped before 1932
ChalonerDe Winton1877Sold to a private collector 1960; now preserved at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.
GelliDe Winton1893Withdrawn 1945, still intact at quarry 1952; believed scrapped
PendyffrynDe Winton1894Sold 1965, now restored to working order at the Brecon Mountain Railway
ArthurDe Winton1895Scrapped 1956
VictoriaDe Winton1898[4] Scrapped 1956
KelsoVulcan Foundry1893Withdrawn 1945, still intact at quarry 1952; believed scrapped
BritomartHunslet7071899Sold in 1965, now privately owned and running on the Ffestiniog Railway
SybilHunslet8271903Sold in 1965, now privately owned, and restored to working order at the Brecon Mountain Railway alongside Pendyffryn
UnaHunslet8731905Sold in 1963. Now in working order at the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis
DianaKerr Stuart11581909
No. 1Ruston & Hornsby235712194520DL. Out of use in 1972.
No. 1Ruston & Hornsby226298194520DL. Out of use in 1972.
No. 2Ruston & Hornsby2357111945
No. 3Ruston & Hornsby2262981943
No. 4Ruston & Hornsby226264194320DL. Out-of-use in the top level of the quarry in 1972.[5]
Sold or scrapped

See also

References

  1. Book: Lindsay, Jean . A history of the North Wales slate industry . 1974 . David & Charles.
  2. News: The Narrow Gauge . The Narrow Gauge Railway Society . 73 . Twenty Five Years of Narrow Gauge Preservation . Mike . Swift.
  3. News: Dan . Quine . Dan Quine . A history of Baguley 774. Talyllyn News . February 2017.
  4. Gwynedd Archives . Caernarfon Record Office . The Penyrorsedd Stand at the Olympia Exhibition, 1928 . XS/1245/29.
  5. News: Pen-yr-orsedd Slate Quarry Co. Ltd. . December 1972 . Narrow Gauge News . The Narrow Gauge Railway Society . 80 .