Bryn Eglwys
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Bryn Eglwys was a remote slate quarry located near Abergynolwyn in Gwynedd mid-Wales.
[edit] History
The quarry was first worked on a small scale in the early 1840's. In 1864 William McConnell leased the quarry, forming the Aberdovey Slate Company Limited. McConnell planned to increase production at Bryn Eglwys. The limiting factor was the transportation of finished slates by pack horse to the wharves at Aberdovey. To overcome this, McConnell built the Talyllyn Railway, a narrow gauge line running from the quarry to Twywn, where slate could be transhipped to the newly built Aberystwyth and Welsh Coast Railway.
The railway ran to Nant Gwernol, a lonely spot about 430 feet below the main quarry level. From there a series of inclines rose to the quarry.
Neither the quarry nor its associated railway were great commercial successes. By 1879 the company had run out of funds and both were auctioned off on 9th. October of that year. After this and a subsequent auction failed to find a bidder, William McConnell personally bought both and an upturn in the slate market allowed the quarry to expand further.
McConnell died in 1902 and the quarry became the property of his son W.H. McConnell. However the leases on the land the quarry occupied were close to running out and Bryn Eglwys ceased production in 1909.
In 1911 the local Liberal Member of Parliament Henry Haydn Jones purchased the quarry, along with the Talyllyn Railway and the village of Abergynolwyn, forming the Abergynolwyn Slate & Slab Co. Ltd. New leases were signed with the landowners and the quarry resumed production.
The quarry remained in production until a serious collapse on December 26th 1946 - it had been unsafe for some time.
