Bryn Hafod-y-wern Slate Quarry
Launder pillars on the waste heap with Moel Wnion shrouded in mist in the background
| Date | 5 March 2011 | ||
| Location | Bryn Hafod-y-wern, Llanllechid | SH 63219 69223; 53.20242°N, 4.04926°W | |
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Information |
The quarry was operated by the Pennant family from the 1780s. The lease passed out of the hands of the Penrhyn estate in the 1820s and the Royal Bangor Slate Company, established in London in 1845, later took over. Plans to connect the quarry to the Chester-Holyhead railway at Abergwyngregyn came to nothing, and the quarry was also affected by industrial unrest in the 1880s. Water to power the quarry came from Cwm Caseg via a leat five miles long. The water supply was cut off in 1889. The hazardous flooded quarry pit is 50m deep and contains dumped unexploded World War II bombs and barbed wire. It is also the grave of a diver who died there in the 1970s.
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Flooded quarry pit, Bryn Hafod-y-wern
Very nice pic of the pit and comprehensive history. AJR’s Slate Gazetteer mentions the owner’s house still in habited condition, did you see that? Looks like a good site for a mooch!
Iain Robinson
March 8, 2011 at 6:14 pm
If that is Bryn Hall (right next to the quarry), then yes I did. It used to be a Youth Hostel for a while, but is now a private residence.
Graham Stephen
March 8, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I’ve just seen your posting of last March about Bryn Hall, nr Llanllechid. I stayed there once when it was a Youth Hostel in the late 1950s. It was run by a distant relative, a woman on her own but whose name now escapes me. I’ve seen the Hostel of those days referred to in one account as ‘cheerless’, which I’m afraid is pretty much how I found it, more or less. I wonder what the warden’s name was. I remember the tap water sometimes ran blue, from the slate.
Peter Smith
February 3, 2012 at 3:28 pm
[...] Until 1889 water from here was carried by a leat five miles long to supply power to Bryn Hafod-y-wern Slate Quarry. [...]
Ffynnon Caseg « GeoTopoi
March 21, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I always thought the distance of the leat which originates at afon wen was 8 miles and not 5 miles as you state???
Evan William Jones
May 22, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I’m not entirely sure, perhaps you are right – the references I have seen mention 5 miles / 7 km, e.g. :
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/827483
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/community/viewtopic.aspx?t=2471
Graham Stephen
May 22, 2011 at 6:22 pm
[...] Hill Braichmelyn Quarry Bryn-hafod-y-wern Slate Quarry Croesor Quarry Dinorwic Quarry Dorothea Quarry TSS Duke of Lancaster Ferodo Flagstaff Quarry [...]
Dereliction « GeoTopoi
August 26, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I was born at Bryn Hall in 1960 when it was a Youth Hostel and my parents were the wardens. I remember my father telling me that he once threw a 1914-18 WW1 Colt revolver and ammunition into the quarry when ‘Silent Ellis’, the local bobby’, was chasing around for undisclosed firearms. I was last there to scatter his ashes around the O.S, triangle on top of Moel Wnion as requested by him.
mike Worswick
August 21, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for dropping by and commenting Mike
Graham Stephen
August 21, 2012 at 7:37 pm