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Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries from Foel Lus

Penmaenmawr from Foel Lus

Key

Date	12 May 2012
Location	Foel Lus, Penmaenmawr	SH 73010 76255; 53.26802°N, 3.90557°W
Information	Graiglwyd Quarry A Modern Processing Plant
B	Braichllwyd Mill	C	Fox Bank Mill	D	De Winton locomotive level	E	Bonc Jolly Mill	F	Brundrits Wharf

Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries Processing Plant

Komatsu WA500 wheel loader

Date	5 May 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 70381 75175; 53.25768°N, 3.94453°W
Information	Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries’ main processing plant is located on the plateau on top of Penmaen Mawr mountain, at the southeast end of the main working area. Quarrying operations at the complex were suspended at the end of 2008. Other posts in this series

Fox Bank Mill, Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries

Hopper, Fox Bank Mill

Date	5 May 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 70408 75639; 53.26186°N, 3.94431°W
Information	The workings at Fox Bank have merged with those of Penmaen East Quarry to form the main extractive area, mothballed since 2008, of Hanson’s granite quarry complex at Penmaenmawr. The crushing plant at Fox Bank Mill is now in ruins. Other posts in this series

Penmaen West Quarry Pumping House

Pulsometer Engineering Ltd pump

Date	28 April 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 69520 75293; 53.25853°N, 3.95747°W
Information	The small reservoir and abandoned pumping house are located on the plateau above the old Penmaen West Quarry, part of the Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries complex.

Penmaen West Quarry Inclines

Guarding the incline...

Date	28 April 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 69331 75442; 53.25982°N, 3.96037°W
Information	These photographs were taken on the inclines rising from the tramway hugging the side of Penmaen Mawr headland up to the levels of the disused Penmaen West quarry, part of the Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries complex. Brundrits and Whiteway started quarrying for granite on the western side of Penmaenmawr mountain in the 1830s and in 1911 merged with Darbishires Ltd, owners of the quarries on the eastern side of the mountain, to form the Penmaenmawr and Welsh Granite Company. In 1963 the latter became part of the Bath and Portland Stones Firms Ltd. Next to own the quarry complex was Kingston Minerals Ltd, followed in the 1980s by the Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation. The current proprietor is Hanson Aggregates, who suspended quarrying operations in the hitherto active areas of the site in 2008.

De Winton locomotive ‘Watkin’

De Winton vertical-boilered locomotive 'Watkin'

Date	22 April 2012
Location	Penrhyn Castle Industrial Railway Museum	SH 60277 71968; 53.22631°N, 4.09447°W
Information	The 1893 vertical-boilered De Winton ‘Watkin’ is on display in the Industrial Railway Museum at Penrhyn Castle. The remains of her older sister ‘Penmaen’ are still in situ braving the elements at Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries, where they both worked. Penmaen was built in 1878 and was last used around 1944. Watkin Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Co. 0-4-0 Tank Locomotive. Gauge: 3′ 0″. Coupled wheels: 1′ 8″ diameter. Two vertical Cylinders 6″ x 10″. Built 1893 by De Winton & Co, of Caernarfon and worked at the Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries until 1944. Purchased 1966 by the late Mr Evan Hughes of Llanrwst and placed on loan to the National Trust by his daughter, Mrs D Williams, in May 1972  — Penrhyn Castle information plaque

Brundrits Wharf, Penmaenmawr

Wharf wall, looking towards Penmaenmawr town with Foel Lus above

Date	21 April 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 70657 76280; 53.26768°N, 3.94084°W
Information	From this site, now overshadowed by the new A55 trunk road, stone products from the quarries on the upper slopes of Penmaenmawr were exported by sea and rail. 1832 – 1847 Jetty In 1832 Brundrit and Whiteway of Runcorn began developing Penmaen stone quarry above here at a place called ‘Y Jolly’ for the manufacture of cobbles. A jetty was erected where coasters could be easily loaded. Wagons carried the setts down on self-activating inclines – the loaded wagons descending and pulling the empty wagons back up. 1847 – 1940s Railway and Jetty When the Chester/Holyhead railway passed here after 1847 the Penmaen Company constructed a quay with railway sidings for the distribution of stone products by rail as well as by sea. The first jetty was improved twice in 1872 and 1888. In 1913 a new 200 metre long jetty was built. The remains of the wooden supports can be seen below the wall. Large concrete storage hoppers were constructed on either side of the incline where it joined the jetty. Built in 1914 and 1923 they had a capacity to hold over 10,000 tons of macadam (crushed stone). Both were demolished in the 1980s. 1940s – 1955 Jetty only By the 1940s the rail sidings had become redundant. The last ship to be loaded at the jetty was the MV Cadbourne in 1955. The jetty was demolished in 1960. 1987 – 1989 A55 Trunk Road The Welsh Office commissioned the scheme for the Penmaenmawr Bypass in the 1980s which included the demolition of the disused granite storage hoppers in this area as well as reorganisation of the railway sidings. The 230m Goat Inn Viaduct that took their place was the most complex and technically demanding structure on the project. This, the associated soft estate landscaping areas, and the rest of the A55 remains under the management of North Wales Trunk Road Agency on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.  — Welsh Assembly Government information board Penamenmawr Granite Quarries

Penmaenmawr Granite Quarries

Weighbridge balance

Date	21 April 2012
Location	Penmaenmawr	SH 70549 75990; 53.26504°N, 3.94235°W – Penmaen Quarry Mill SH 70044 75890; 53.26402°N, 3.94987°W – De Winton locomotive SH 69974 75697; 53.26227°N, 3.95084°W – Extractive site
Information	Use of granite at Penmaenmawr dates back to Neolithic times when there was an axe factory on Graiglwyd; stone axes manufactured there have been found in many different parts of Britain. More recent quarrying of Penmaenmawr’s granite started in the 1830s, when the stone was used to make setts — small rectangular paving blocks for surfacing roads. Not long afterwards, two separate quarrying concerns had been established: on Graiglwyd in the east and Penmaen in the west. The former was owned by the Darbishire family, and the latter by the Brundrits company. These two enterprises merged in 1911, forming the Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Company. Today the quarry complex is owned by Hanson Aggregates. The market for setts was diminishing in the early 20th century and sett production at Graiglwyd came to an end in the 1930s. The emphasis had been shifting towards the production of crushed rock for use as railway ballast and in asphalt applications, with crushing mills having been built in the 1880s and 1890s. A new crushing plant was built at the site in 1983 to produce aggregates. The internal transport system employed three-foot gauge track and incorporated some 60 inclines, which were in use until around 1965 and were superseded by a conveyor belt system and haul roads. Originally, ships would load with cargo from jetties at the town’s sea front, and with the coming of the main railway line to Penmaenmawr in 1848 exports were also made by rail. Timber stumps of the supports of both jetties remain today — one, demolished in 1960, at Brundrits Wharf below the Penmaen Quarries; the other on the rocky beach by the promenade, opposite the railway sidings at the end of the modern conveyor that starts from the Graiglwyd side of the complex. At the end of 2008, having lost its contract to supply Network Rail with railway ballast, Hanson announced that it was to mothball its quarrying operation at Penmaenmawr, but stated that the concrete and asphalt plants at the site would continue to operate. Quarry Historic Background (penmaenmawr.com); Hanson quarry jobs blow in North Wales (13 Dec 2008, Daily Post)

Penmaenmawr Quarry

Penmaenmawr Quarry from Clip yr Orsedd

Date	21 March 2010
Location	Penmaenmawr Quarry from Clip yr Orsedd	SH 71128 74809	53.25458°N, 3.93319°W