The History of Quarrying - The Industrial Revolution
Bethesda Richard
Pennant, (1737? -1808) the first Lord Penrhyn,
inherited the estate on the death of his father. He secured leases
from the Crown and from the Bishop of Bangor for building
a quay at Port Penrhyn, (Aber Cegin). He also wondered whether slate could be used for roofing on his Jamaican estates. With
his fifty-four leases called in, he took the whole workings into
his own hand as a single undertaking. At least twelve ship loads
a month were sailing to Liverpool, and others much further afield, not only supplying slates for roofing, but also large
slabs for tombstones and smaller slabs for paving. To further
facilitate the transport of the slate, a horse tramway was
constructed from the Penrhyn Quarry to Port
Penrhyn in 1801.
Disturbances at Caernarfon
On November 7th and 8th, 1800, around
150 quarrymen marched on Caernarfon and attacked the granary. By
the end of January 1801, rumours were rife that there was a
conspiracy afoot between the coal miners of Denbigh and Flint and
the Bethesda quarrymen to attack various centres. It was also
reported that 400 pikes had been produced in secret at the quarry
in preparation for a rising. To cap it all, there was also a
rumour that two spies were operating in certain areas of Anglesey
and Caernarfonshire threatening clerics, justices and
landowners.
A decision was made on January 26th to call in the
military to keep the peace. This was a contentious issue in
Caernarfon. A story was leaked that 400 quarrymen were about to
attack the town. Consequently, dragoons were rushed in to Denbigh, Holywell and Caernarfon itself.
In the meantime, at the start of February it was believed that
the number of impending attackers from Bethesda had risen to
2,000.
Nothing of the kind happened and calls were made for the
dragoons to be recalled by February 12th even though
some leading townsmen were not happy with this. Consequently, the
soldiers stayed on until the eighteenth of the month before
departing.
Llanberis
On the Faenol estate in 1771 only small quarries worked by
quarrymen who paid a nominal rent to the owner were in existence.
Sixteen years later, two solicitors and their partner, Thomas
Wright, Hugh Ellis and William Bridge, noted the affairs of
Richard Pennant. The following year, 1788, saw the great Dinorwig
Quarry (which incorporated some earlier quarries) coming into
operation. The profits of the Penrhyn and the Dinorwig interests
expanded greatly and in 1809 Thomas Assheton
Smith (1752-1828),
the owner took hold of the concern himself. However, the leasing
or appropriation of common land was not popular. Quarrymen did
not like giving up their individual rights to quarry. When Assheton Smith announced his intention to survey the common of Llanddeiniolen in 1809, violent opposition occurred.
The Riot Act
was read.
But, just as at Penrhyn, a tramway was also built to link the
Dinorwig Quarry with the newly created Port Dinorwic (Y Felinheli
today) in 1831.
Nantlle
Developments at Nantlle took a similar turn, but with an
interesting twist. During the early eighteenth century, the Crown
had been very negligent with regards to its property and land.
Sir John Wynn, (1701-74) of Glynllifon was given the right to dig
for slates and minerals in the hills and commons of eight
parishes. On his death, his son, Sir Thomas Wynn, the first Lord
Newborough (d.1807) had his petition for the renewal of the lease
refused. In the meantime, quarrymen were helping them selves to
slate and were able to rival Penrhyn Quarry in their sales. A new
Crown agent, Robert Roberts of Caernarfon was appointed in as
superintendent of wastelands and commons in four of the parishes
that had been leased by John Wynn as well as six others.
Consequently he set about letting 'bargains', that is various
areas of the site, to companies of quarrymen in 1791-92. When Thomas
Wynn heard of this on his return, he set up a claim to the
quarries in Cilgwyn, and through his agent, ordering the workmen
to pay no more rent to the Crown Agent, as well as circulating a
report that the Crown had no right whatsoever to any quarry at
Cefn Du. The matter dragged on until April 1800 when the matter
was at last partly settled as far as the Crown was concerned. The
Cilgwyn and Cefn Du Slate Company was founded. Lord Newborough by backing the independent quarrymen vigorously and
still challenging the rights of the Crown, and claiming for
trespass, led to state of affairs that was to last
intermittently for years, even as late as 1834. In the meantime,
the quarry at Tal-y-sarn started production in 1802, Dorothea
Quarry in 1829 and Fron Quarry in 1830.
The Thieves of Plas y Cilgwyn
Dorothea Quarry was bought in 1835 by an Englishman called
Muskett. He spent heavily on new equipment to raise the
waggons from the quarry bottom. But he overspent, and was declared
bankrupt a few years later. The quarry was closed with three
months wages owing to most of the workers. They consequently
revolted and demolished the new house Muskett had built for
himself - Plas y Cilgwyn.
A ballad was written about the occasion by a local poet called
Richard Owen who did not support the action taken by the
men.
Blaenau Ffestiniog
English capital made a greater contribution to the development
of the slate mining industry in Meirionydd than in the remainder
of Gwynedd. William Turner from Lancashire, together with
the Hollands, the Cassons and the Greaves families,
played a substantial part in the industry's development. The Diffwys Quarry
dates back to c. 1765, Bowydd (1801) and Manod (1805), and the Oakeley Quarry
which dates back to the early 1800s and eventually grew to be the largest slate mine in
the world, with over 50 miles of underground tramways. William Turner who had a lease for
the Clogwyn y Fuwch Quarry in the Conwy valley in the late 1790's, and was
about to board a ship at Conwy, when he heard of quarrying
activity at Diffwys, Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1799. Deciding to try his luck there,
he soon got involved with William and Thomas Casson, another Seathwaite
family. William Turner, William and Thomas Casson acquired the
quarry for a bargain price of £1,000 after bidding privately.
Subsequently, William Turner was superintending a
long list of quarries. Samuel Holland senior (1768-1851), a Liverpool merchant,
who was speculating at Cefn Du Quarry heard of the Rhiwbryfdir workings in 1818
and got a three-year takenote from W.G. Oakeley, of Tanybwlch. In 1821, the
takenote was converted to a full lease, and Samuel Holland Junior was sent for
to supervise the quarry for his father. The quarry at Rhiw flourished and was
sold in 1825 to the Welsh Slate and Copper Company for £28,000.
The outbreak of war with France put a sharp break on
the slate industry. The construction industry slumped, exports
from Port Penrhyn alone were halved and a war tax on slates of
20% penalised the coastal trade. Business did recover after the
Peace of Amiens was signed in 1801, and there was a further improvement following
the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. By 1809, slates were exported
from Port Penrhyn to Boston, Massachusetts.
The second Lord Newborough also had a quarry in the Ffestiniog
area. This was Bowydd Quarry and had started operating in 1801.
However, he invested little capital in it. It was taken over by
his brother in 1823 and by John Roberts of Caernarfon by 1827.
Seven years later, Edward Shelton and John Whitehead
Greaves(1807-80), the third son of a Quaker banker, from
Radford, Warwickshire took the quarry over. Greaves left home for
Caernarfon in 1830, then a booming port for transatlantic
passenger traffic and cargoes of slate, intending to sail to
Canada. He changed his mind and entered into partnership with
Shelton, a wealthy landowner from Worcestershire. They
decided to take on another partner, William Griffith Oakeley, of
Plas Tanybwlch. Twenty-one-year leases were signed in 1835 for
Glynrhonwy, Bowydd, and Foty, (even though Foty had been in
production prior to 1801). The following year, the Ffestiniog
railway to Porthmadog was opened. Unfortunately, Shelton died in 1848
leaving Greaves with a cash flow problem, since the income he was
receiving from Glynrhonwy was substantially less than what he was
spending at Blaenau Ffestiniog. However, he succeeded in opening
the Maenofferen Mine, and the following year, discovered the
elusive Meirionydd Old Vein at Llechwedd.
Work began at Gloddfa Ganol in 1825. At Holland Quarry in
the same year, a legal dispute arose as regards to ownership
between the Crown and William Oakeley, in whose favour the
courts found. The following year, the first Baron Rothschild
started activity on Crown land at Moelwyn Quarry, and inclines
were planned to Porthmadog should the working turn out a success.
Work began at Cwt y Bugail in 1835.
Corris and Abergynolwyn
Quarrying also developed in the south of the county in the
Corris area. There had been a quarry at Aberllefenni since around
1500 it is true, but quarrying started at Gaerwen in 1820, Braich
Goch around 1830 and at Abergynolwyn about 1847. From 1865,
slates were transported from this quarry on the Tal-y-llyn
Railway. A railway for carrying slate was also built at Corris as
well.
Anglesey Region The slate quarrying industry in Anglesey was very small.
Trefarthen Quarry near Brynsiencyn was part of the Faenol estate
and was worked in the late 18th century. The small
quarries on the boundary of Llangefni and Llangristiolus were part
of the Baron Hill estate as were the quarry at Llanfflewyn and
Bodegri.
Slates were being produced here in 1864. In 1875 a new lease
was taken out with permission to build an engine house,
storehouses, cottages, tramways, shafts, levels and adits. These
dreams were never realised.
Llaneilian Quarry was part of the Llys Dulas estate and
started production in February 1870 under a company formed and
run by men from Manchester and Yorkshire. Even though the
prospects were thought to be favourable by two quarrymen from Caernarfonshire,
who were joined by John
Hughes from the Dinorwig Quarry who was appointed manager, the
dreams of riches were not realised.
The grandiose plan to create Porth Dinorben to export the
slate was shelved as early as 1872 when it was decided to carry
on using horse and cart to carry the slate to porth Eilian to be
shipped out. A vein of copper was discovered in 1873 but by now
no further customers could be found to buy shares. Not having
land to build sheds to house slate working tools was also
regarded as unsatisfactory. The paying of dividends also ceased.
Up to 1873, the ten quarrymen employed had produced:
1,940 slates of the best quality |
480 second class slates |
2,700 moss slates |
By June 1875 the bank was very unhappy at the way things were
and ordered that the company be wound up. But it allowed the
directors a loan of £3,000. It was to no avail. Work ceased in
June 1877 and the company was wound up in August 1878.
New towns and villages
All this activity had an immense effect on this remote
area of Wales. Between 1800 and 1840, the populations of the
quarrying areas doubled in some areas and trebled in others. New
towns and villages came into existence. A group of Non-Conformist
quarrymen built a chapel near their new working quarters, and
called it 'Bethesda' after the healing waters of the Biblical
pool. It was common practice to name chapels after Biblical
places, and villages like, Ebenezer, Carmel, Saron, Nebo and
Bethel came into being. Cottages, pubs and more chapels followed.
By 1881, the parish of Llanllechid, which included Bethesda, had
a population of 8,291 compared with only 1332 in 1801. Similarly,
the parish of Ffestiniog had a population of 11,274 in 1881
compared to only 732 in 1801.
Boom time
Industrial output surges forward between 1831-82. With the
population of Wales and England increasing from 8.8 million in
1801 to 29.9 million in 1881; and in spite of the building trade
prospering and declining, average slate production for roofing
rose. The canal system of the British Isles was more or less
complete. Freight charges fell, but this had no effect in north
Wales where canals were practically nonexistent. Indeed up to
1844, when the Chester and Holyhead Railway was built, Wales was
without a single railway connection. But with private company
railways connecting quarries to the coast, ports like Porthmadog
developed. The population of the parish of Ynys Cynhaiarn rose
steadily from 525 in 1801 to 5,506 by 1881. Slate Tonnage from
Ffestiniog to Porthmadog rose from 4,275 tons in 1836 to 12,426
tons in 1882. Indeed a journalist described Blaenau Ffestiniog in
1873 as 'a city of slate' with the mud on the roads even being
'a blue slaty colour.'
By the same time, slate quarrying was also firmly established as an
industry in the Llanberis area. The total number of workers
employed at the Dinorwig Quarry alone had risen from 1,900 in
1843 to 2,850 in 1873. The original tramway became inadequate and
a new line with a 4foot gauge was built along the shores of Llyn
Padarn. New workshops were built in 1870 for the quarry by the
firm of De Winton, Caernarfon. There now existed four workshops
facing each other forming a yard with a large clock placed above
the entrance arch. At the far end was enclosed a water wheel to
drive all the workshop machinery, which is only superseded in
size by the Laxey Wheel on the Isle of Man. It worked until 1925
when a Pelton waterwheel was installed. There was even a casting
furnace, for casting and replacing damaged or broken iron
parts.
This story was repeated in the Bethesda area, with the Penrhyn Quarry employing around 3,000 men in 1869 and producing
an output of 93,000 tons, whilst by 1882, even though the quarry
only employed 2,809 men, the output had risen to 111,166 tons,
compared with 87,429 tons at Dinorwig.
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