hi there everyone. just a little snippet if anyone is interested.
as a frequent visiter to to betws y coed, ive walked round the old quarry a few times investigating the old buildings and pit.
on my last visit i was chatting to a local guy, and he reckoned there are 25miles of tunnels/workings in this quarry??????
hafod-las has always been stated as an open quarry, after further investigation i did find at the top of the site, (as you follow the wire fence to a metal gate and stile.) over a stone wall there is a tunnel into the pit. halfway along is another tunnel which went in about 20mts opening to a small chamber. so there is evadance that underground working did take [email protected] :thumbup:

This one? http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Hafod-Las-Slate-Mine-2/ 

I'd be surprised if there was that much underground there, but I'll check the book this evening to see of there are any production records etc. 🙂

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Welcome Rob. There is an excellent book on Hafod Las (which I don't have unfortunately) that would provide a definite answer. It sounds unlikely in my opinion. Llechwedd in Blaenau has about 25 miles of tunnel and is on a much larger scale.

Hate to disappoint you, but while such might be true of the larger Blaenau quarries - Votty, Llechwedd, Oakeley, - and depending how you measure it - but Hafod-las is nowhere near on that scale. It was primarily an open quarry, and small at that, with just a couple of chambers and levels. None the less fascinating for that - especially the machinery. See Griff Jones' book.

Grahami

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thanks for replying guys...think you are all most probably right. i do know this chap quite well though as he is a friend of the landlady where i stay. and has lived in pentre du all his life. ill see if i can find out more. probably been drinking to much penderyn (welsh whisky) :lol:

Zombie Thread Alert, but probably better than starting a new one....

Had a look around the overgrown buildings at the top of the incline, but the two(well 2++) questions we had were, what was the cast iron structure for? Roof support or power transmission of some sort? Also, there's something going on underfloor. Is this just a simple water drainage culvert for groundwater?

A bit higher up we came across quite a big adit leading to what looked remarkably like an incipient mining chamber in the Blaenau style. Very odd, seeing as it's removed from the pit and has limited range to daylight.

To to the east is a building in a field with a strange stand alone chimney. There's also an arched structure 6' or so long extending into the hill (we conjectured that this was for cooking or for the cool storage of cadavers). It also has a fireplace mounted 45degrees across two perpendicular walls, a feature we noted in another building.

There was a1865 inscription on one of the walls, along with a more recent one from the Tanybwlch survey.

Finally, is this worth a return visit to explore the adit, and if so in what condition is it in?

I DO have the book, but it's currently in deep storage!

Robin

Having been brought up in Pentre Du, I can definitely confirm that there was hardly any underground in Hafodlas, your informant was either pulling your leg or didn't know what he was on about. There are a couple of tunnels into the pit and the main drainage adit is worth exploring, although it's a long time since I was in there. They started some chambering off this drainage adit but did not develop it. Unfortunately. since it was fenced off, the whole site is overgrown - sheep do have their good points.

... Had a look around the overgrown buildings at the top of the incline ...

... what was the cast iron structure for? Roof support or power transmission of some sort?

Also, there's something going on underfloor. Is this just a simple water drainage culvert for groundwater?

According to the book (Hafodlas Slate Quarry, Griff R Jones, 1998), it would appear that the cast iron stanchions and beams were centreline supports for the roof trusses.

The line shafting for the machines ran under the mill floors - hence the underfloor voids.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I really need to get the book out of deep storage. It's in a big box under my wife's desk next door, but if we open it, it'll all have to get sorted....

There's a bit in my Hunter machines paper (on here) on the mill layout to save you digging for now...????

Grahami

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