Maenofferen Quarry

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The abandoned Maenofferen slate cutting mill, seen from the Rhiwbach Tramway No. 3 incline, 2007

Maenofferen Quarry was a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales and one of the major users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It continues to produces slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry

[edit] History

Maenofferen was first worked for slate by men from the nearby Diphwys quarry shortly after 1800. By 1848 slate was being shipped via the Ffestiniog Railway, but traffic on the railway ceased in 1850. In 1857 traffic resumed briefly and apart from a gap in 1865, a steady flow of slate was dispatched via the railway. The initial quarry on the site was known as the David Jones quarry which was the highest and most easterly of what became the extensive Maenofferen complex.

In 1861 the Maenofferen Slate Quarry Co. Ltd. was incorporated, producing around 400 tons of slate that year. The company leased a wharf at Porthmadog in 1862 and shipped 181 tons of finished slate over the Ffestiniog Railway the following year.

During the ninteenth century the quarry flourished and expanded, extending its workings underground and further downhill towards Blaenau Ffestiniog. By 1897 it employed 429 with almost half of those working underground. The Ffestiniog Railway remained the quarry's major outlet for its products, but there was not direct connection from Maenofferen to the Ffestiniog's terminus at Duffws. Instead slate was sent via the Rhiwbach Tramway which ran through the quarry. This incurred extra shipping costs that rival quarries did not have to bear.

In 1908 the company leased wharf space at Minffordd, installing turntables and siding to allow finished slates to be transshipped to the standard gauge railway there.

In 1920 the company finally solved alleviated its shipping costs by building a new incline connecting its mill to the Votty & Bowydd quarry and reaching agreement to ship its products via that company's incline connection to Duffws.

Modern untopping operations at Maenofferen. The uncovered chambers are clearly visible

In 1928 Maeofferen purchased the Rhiwbach quarry, continuing to work this site and its associated Rhiwbach Tramway until 1953.

When the Ffestiniog Railway ceased operation in 1946, Maeofferen leased a short length of the railway's tracks between Duffws station and the interchange with the LMS railway, west of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Slate trains continued to run over this section until 1962, Maenofferen becoming the last slate quarry to use any part of the Ffestiniog Railway's route. From 1962 onwards, slate was shipped from the quarry by road, although the internal quarry tramways including stretches of the Rhiwbach tramway continued in use until at least the 1980s.

The quarry was purchased by the nearby Llechwedd quarry in 1975 along with Votty (also by that time owned by the Maen Offeren Company) Production at Maenofferen officially ceased in November 1999 but limited production recommenced. The current operation involves "untopping" underground workings to recover slate from the supporting pillars of the chambers, and reworking of material recovered from the quarry tips.

[edit] Locomotives

[edit] References

• Boyd, James I.C. (1975). The Festiniog Railway: Volume 2. The Oakwood Press.