Slate Removal & Quarry Development
The slate vein at Dinorwic is nearly vertical and lies at or near the surface of the mountain, allowing it to be worked in a series of stepped galleries. This is however not quite how the quarry developed.
The first quarrying was spread across several sites:Adelaide, Allt Ddu, Braich, Bryn Glas, Bryn Llys, Chwarel Fawr, Ellis, Garrett, Harriet, Matilda, Morgan's, Raven Rock, Sofia, Turner, Victoria and Wellington. This was a situation that lasted for many years, certainly until the mid 1830s.
The 1824 railway brought transport problems. Produce from the upper quarries was not a problem, but Wellington, Ellis, Turner, Harriet and Victoria quarries were all below the level of the railway. This was a problem solved in the 1840s when the lake level railway was built, and the quarry as we know it began to take shape.
Adelaide Quarry became a part of Allt Ddu, and Chwarel Fawr and Chwarel Goch became linked to it too. In the 'Great New Quarry' Raven Rock and Garret Quarries became one massive quarry, operating as an open hillside gallery quarry, with the lowest 2 levels being accessed by tunnels. Harriet, Morgans and Sofia quarry are all still identifiable as separate pits today, whilst Braich Quarry became a large working of 3 contiguous smaller pits. Below this, The galleries of Victoria and Wellington were joined along the hillside, and continued downwards in 2 separate main workings: Wellington and Hafod Owen. Each was eventually to contain several small Sinks too, some below lake level.
The current form of the quarry is little different from that of the time of the Great War, save for enlarging of the actual quarry faces, and deepening of the Sinks. Certainly all the main inclines were in place, very little was altered until closure.
Read more about this topic: Dinorwic Quarry
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