Abergynolwyn is a nineteenth-century village in the Dysynni valley in Merioneth, which was built by the Abergynolwyn Slate Company to house quarrymen working at Bryn Eglwys slate quarry (NPRN 40589) which opened in 1844, and stands close to the narrow-gauge Talyllyn Railway (NPRN 34946), which served both the quarry and the village.
Abergynolwyn came into existence after the opening of Bryn Eglwys Quarry in 1844 and there was an intense period of development from 1864 to the early 1880s. It represents a boom period in the local economy, following which there was a prolonged decline, with little new building, which has ensured that the town retains its nineteenth-century character. Early housing is comprised of pairs and short rows of houses, whereas after major investment in the quarry and village from 1864 rows of terraced houses were built, some of them based loosely on designs by a Manchester architect, James Stevens. The town acquired chapels, a church, school and shops, becoming a fully-formed community, both economically and culturally.
Statement of Significance:
Abergynolwyn is a well-defined industrial village of the nineteenth century. Its development from rural farmsteads to industrial village, a process that took place over a period of about thirty years, is clearly demonstrated in the surviving buildings in the village.
The village was largely built by the Abergynolwyn Slate Company, owner of the Bryn Eglwys Quarry, an example of how the influence of capitalist owners extended from the workplace to the home in the nineteenth century. A further example of this is evidence of a railway that served the village, via an inclined plane from the Talyllyn Railway. It is a unique survival in the slate-quarrying region of North Wales.
Source:
This site is part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, Component Part 6: Bryneglwys Quarry, Abergynolwyn Village and the Talyllyn Railway. Inscribed July 2020.
Sources:
Hannah Genders Boyd, RCAHMW, February 2022