Blaenau Ffestiniog - The Town That Roofed The World (Part 1)

Blaenau Ffestiniog - The Town That Roofed The World (Part 1)

Last summer, we travelled by train to Blaenau Ffestiniog, specifically to discover everything I could about the slate industry in Wales, and particularly in Blaenau Ffestiniog; and what a remarkable visit it turned out to be. 

The Station at Porthmadog

I am not a geologist, but with the help of the wonderfully friendly people at the Llechwedd mine, I learned so much about this wonderful material and the following two articles were published in a Welsh magazine. I have so many ideas for pursuing other "buried" treasures of Wales - in particular coal, gold and granite, but that will have to wait until I have a good length of time to carry out some uninterrupted research! 

The following two articles were published in a Welsh magazine, and I hope all those who read them will enjoy learning something about this wonderful material, and how it came literally to "roof the world." 

BLAENAU FFESTINIOG – THE TOWN THAT ROOFED THE WORLD (Part 1)

 

Forged in a crucible of over 500 million years, slate is a marvellous material. From its beginnings as mud on the seabed, to compressions and heat and volcanic upheaval, at last it rests in seams far above the sea, ready to be mined or quarried and used by those able to release it from the embrace of the rock in which it lies. Proof of its watery origins can be found in fossils left embedded in the slate, such as white trilobites, sometimes referred to as “milk spots” by the miners. Although their presence means a slate will not split properly, they remain a delicate confirmation of how slate began its life.  

 

Slate deposits in Wales are found from three geological ages: the Cambrian, which dates from 541 - 485.4 million years ago; the Ordovician, dating from 485.4 - 443.8 million years ago; and the Silurian period, dating from 443.8 - 419.2 million years ago. It is the Ordovician deposits that were found and mined in Blaenau Ffestiniog. 

 

Welsh slate has been extracted for over three thousand years. The Romans also knew of its properties and during the first century, it was they who used slate that was split as roofing material for their villas. 

 

Two men in particular were involved in the finding, and then transportation of Welsh slate across the world. 

 

The first, John Whitehead Greaves, was born in 1807, into a Quaker family in Radford, Warwickshire. He had a great sense of adventure, and first planned to emigrate to Canada, but later decided to postpone that ambition, and went into partnership with Edwin Shelton, to search for slate in Wales. They took out what was called a “Take Note” option, which was a short-term exploratory lease for 21 years; John Greaves was in charge at Bowydd, with Edwin Shelton taking control at Glynrhonwy.

 

Greaves soon realised there had to be large slate deposits under the area of Llechwedd y eyd, and turned his attention to that area. 

 

He opened the Llechwedd slate quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1846 but after three years of having had no success, his bank would not lend him any more money; the enterprise almost bankrupted him. 

 

This lack of funds meant he could not pay his men, but some of them had faith in Greaves’ vision, and carried on working for nothing. Their trust paid off; a few weeks later, the large vein, known as the “Old Merioneth Vein,” was found.

 

The different veins of slate have been given appropriate names, imaginatively and creatively illustrating their properties, such as the New Vein; the Back Vein; the Pig’s Vein (so difficult to extract!) and the Red Vein – with iron pirates, sometimes referred to as Fool’s Gold; but in the Merioneth Vein was a prize deposit, creating such great industrial success for Blaenau Ffestiniog.

 

The second man to have a great impact on the slate industry was William Alexander Maddocks. He was born in 1773 and, although his family originally hailed from Denbighshire, he was brought up in London, and became a wealthy London MP. He had bought various parcels of land in Wales, and conceived a grand plan of building a sea wall – the Cob – to reclaim land for agriculture. He built the towns of Porthmadog (originally called Port Madoc, it has also been referenced as Port Maddox!) and Tremadog. 

 

The cob was constructed between 1807 and 1811; at first, William Maddocks hoped that it would be included in the route for shipping bound for Ireland, but when an improved road, passing through Snowdonia and Holyhead, was developed instead, that dream was thwarted.  

 

However, the diversion of the River Glaswyn resulted in a change of direction in its flow, and caused it to scour out a deeper trench; this formed a natural harbour, deep enough to enable small ocean-going sailing ships to dock and be loaded with slate for export to America and other countries overseas. Porthmadog itself evolved into a very successful port, and in 1825, public wharves were built.

 

William Maddocks died in 1828, before the construction of the Ffestiniog Railway; after the railway was brought into operation, for the last 1.5 km of the journey, the narrow-gauge trains crossed the Cob, bringing large shipments of slate to the port.

On the Cob

 

In 1831, Government duty was abolished on Welsh slate, and in 1832, an Act of Parliament, called the Festiniog Railway Act (the spelling with a single “F” is the official title of the company in the local act) was passed.  Most of the capital was raised in Dublin by Henry Archer, the company’s first Secretary and Managing Director, and the railway was constructed between 1833 and 1836. In 1921, most railways were amalgamated into four regional groups (which in 1948 became British Railways), but the Festiniog Railway Company remained independent; it also owns the Welsh Highland Railway. 

Nowadays, heritage narrow-gauge trains still use the Cob, to the delight of passengers enjoying excursions provided by the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways.

 

The Cob Toll House operated from 1811 but from about 1900, it was taken over to be used as an office for the Parc and Croesor slate quarries, and was clad in slate to show off their wares. In 1978, The Rebecca Trust (a local body that had been opposed to tolls), bought the rights, and a toll of 5p per vehicle continued for 25 years, with surplus funds distributed to local good causes. When the Welsh Government bought the Cob from the Trust, the tolls ended on 29 March 2003. Now called Bridge Cottage, it is a Grade II listed building.

 

THE GREAT FIRE OF HAMBURG

 

Following the Great Fire of Hamburg, the rebuilding of the city created an unprecedented demand for Welsh slate.

 

Reminiscent of the Great Fire of London in 1666, in the spring of 1842 a devastating fire swept through the port city of Hamburg in Germany; it began in a cigar factory in Deichstrasse in the Altstadt area of the city. The alarm was raised at about 1.00 a.m. on 5^th May 1842, but the weather had been very dry, with strong and changeable winds, and the fire spread swiftly, consuming the wooden and half-timbered houses; by dawn, much of the Altstadt was in flames.

 

After three days and nights, and a blessed shift in the wind, the fire was at last extinguished on 8^thMay; by the time it was out, 51 people – including 22 firefighters - had lost their lives. 1,700 houses, as well as major public buildings, had been destroyed, leaving approximately 20,000 people homeless. 

 

The city would be rebuilt quickly; a Technical Commission was established, with a British engineer, William Lindley, included on the panel. He proposed a reconstruction plan that maintained property lines, building with brick; building with wood was no longer allowed, and firewalls and fireproof gables were authorised. It was also decided to use slate for the new buildings, which led Germany to becoming an important market for Ffestiniog slate.

 

From there, the fame of the unique properties of slate spread to other countries in Europe, to the Americas and further afield, to the other side of the world, in Australia.