National Slate Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Entrance to the museum

The great water wheel inside the museum

The National Slate Museum (previously known as the Welsh Slate Museum) is located at Gilfach Ddu in the 19th-century workshops of the now disused Dinorwic slate quarry, within the Padarn Country Park, Llanberis, Gwynedd.

The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage and part of National Museum Wales.

History

These workshops, which served all the needs of the quarry and its locomotives, were built in 1870 on land created from the continuous tipping of spoil from the adjacent Vivian Quarry, and as a replacement for the store sheds which were previously sited there. Rail access to the works was by both 2 ft (610 mm) gauge (the quarry gauge) and 4 ft (1,219 mm) gauge (that of the Padarn Railway which carried the slate from the quarry to Port Dinorwic). Rails also entered the main yard through the main entrance.

The museum is now connected to the nearby village of Llanberis by the Llanberis Lake Railway, which uses part of the building as its workshops.

The museum reopened after receiving a £1.6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and now has innovative displays featuring Victorian era slateworkers' cottages that once stood at Tanygrisiau, near Blaenau Ffestiniog. They were taken down stone by stone and re-erected here. As well as many interesting exhibits, it has the multi-media display, To Steal a Mountain, showing the lives and work of the men who quarried slate here.

The museum also has the largest working waterwheel in mainland Britain, which is available for viewing via several walkways. The waterwheel was constructed in 1870 by De Winton of Caernarfon and is 50 ft 5ins in diameter, 5 ft 3ins wide and was built around a 12in axle.^[1] Close to the museum is the partly restored Vivian incline, a gravity balance incline where loaded slate wagons haul empty wagons back up.

References

↑ Plaque on the wall of the museum

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Slate Museum.

National Slate Museum
The National Slate Museum at Gathering the Jewels

Map sources for National Slate Museum

v t e Museums and art galleries in Wales

National Museum Wales	National Museum Cardiff St Fagans National History Museum Big Pit National Coal Museum National Wool Museum National Roman Legion Museum National Slate Museum National Waterfront Museum

Natural Science	National Museum Cardiff Swansea Museum Tenby Museum Newport Museum and Art Gallery

History	Isca Augusta Roman Baths Museum

Galleries and art	Dylan Thomas Boathouse Dylan Thomas Centre Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre MOMA, Wales Oriel Ynys Môn

Industry	Bersham Ironworks Blaenavon Ironworks Cefn Coed Colliery Museum Kidwelly Industrial Museum Llechwedd Slate Caverns Newtown Textile Museum Pierhead Building South Wales Miners' Museum Sygun Copper Mine

Military	Monmouth Museum South Wales Borderers Museum Museum of the Welsh Soldier Pembroke Dock Flying Boat Centre

Local history	Abergavenny Museum Brecknock Museum Cardiff Story Carmarthenshire County Museum Ceredigion Museum Chepstow Museum Haverfordwest Town Museum Llancaiach Fawr Llandrindod Wells Museum Llanidloes Museum Milford Haven Museum Narbeth Museum Newport Museum Parc Howard Museum Pontypool Museum Powysland Museum Scolton Manor Swansea Museum Tenby Museum and Art Gallery

Motoring	Llangollen Motor Museum Pembrokeshire Motor Museum Pendine Museum of Speed

Railways	Holyhead Maritime Museum National Coracle Centre

Sport	Welsh Sports Hall of Fame

Coordinates: 53°07′16″N 4°06′54″W / 53.1210°N 4.11510°W / 53.1210; -4.11510

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.