History
Blaenau Ffestiniog is known as the Victorian slate capital of the world, with around 10 mines in the town alone during its heyday. The site of Blaenau Ffestiniog was nothing more than pasture land before the industrial revolution. The town started after slate was discovered there. Railways, churches, schools, houses, shops, and a hospital were all built to accommodate the growing population. After the Second World War the demand for slate fell and the town now relies on tourism. Blaenau Ffestiniog hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1898. It is part of the traditional county of Merionethshire. Locals divide Blaenau Ffestiniog into "areas" - among these are Tanygrisiau, Rhiwbryfdir, Bethania, Dolrhedyn, Glanpwll, Cwmbowydd and Manod. In this context "Blaenau Ffestiniog" is sometimes used to refer only to the centre of town.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“The history of work has been, in part, the history of the worker’s body. Production depended on what the body could accomplish with strength and skill. Techniques that improve output have been driven by a general desire to decrease the pain of labor as well as by employers’ intentions to escape dependency upon that knowledge which only the sentient laboring body could provide.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)