Nyth-y-Gigfran Quarry

The cliffs of Nyth-y-Gigfran with the quarry incline and waste tips visible

Nyth-y-Gigfran Quarry (sometimes spelt: Nith-y-Gigfran Quarry or Nidd-y-Gigfran; sometimes known as Glan-y-Pwll Quarry) was a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales.

History

Nyth-y-Gigfran quarry opened around 1840, operated by Thomas James. It was located about 300ft above the settlement of Glan y Pwll, south of what was to become Blaenau Ffestiniog. The quarry was sited on the steep cliffs that form the eastern edge of Allt-fawr and was entirely underground.^[1]

In 1861 the Glan-y-Pwll Slate & Slab Company Ltd. was incorporated to work the quarry. In 1867 the incline was constructed to connect to the Ffestiniog Railway. The quarry closed in 1870, with the company going into liquidation two years later. ^[1] After this failure the owning company was acquired by the owners of the neighbouring Oakeley Quarry which was mining the north slopes of Allt-fawr. After the amalgamation, the Nyth-y-Gigfran and Oakeley workings were joined together underground and the Nyth-y-Gigfran chambers were worked through to Oakeley.^[1] Thus Nyth-y-Gigfran became part of the largest underground slate mine in the world,^[2] and was worked until Oakeley closed in 1969.^[3]

Transportation

In 1867, a long, single pitch incline was constructed to connect the quarry with the Ffestiniog Railway at Groesffordd. Slate from Nyth-y-Gigfran was shipped via the railway to the Maenofferen wharf at Porthmadog Harbour. The incline fell out of use when the quarry closed in the 1880s.^[1]

The incline was unusual because it did not connect to the adits of the quarry; it stopped about 100ft below that level because the mountain was too steep above this point. A steeper wooden sledway was used to lower slate down from the adit to the incline winding house. There, on a narrow platform built on the mountain slope, it was loaded onto slate waggons which were lowered to the Ffestiniog Railway.^[1]

References