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Dinorwic Quarry Barracks and 'A' Inclines; Anglesey Barracks, Llanberis

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NPRN275726
Map ReferenceSH56SE
Grid ReferenceSH5895060229
Unitary (Local) AuthorityGwynedd
Old CountyCaernarfonshire
CommunityLlanddeiniolen
Type Of SiteINCLINED PLANE
PeriodPost Medieval
Description

1.

(a) Single storey double rows of slate built barracks facing inwards, consisting of two rows of twelve units, c. 20ft apart and facing one another. Each unit measures c. 20ft by 10ft and is divided into two rooms. The larger room (c. 11ft across) contains the fireplace and doorway leading into the smaller room. Built to accommodate quarry workers.

(b) Incline of the "A" series with double track self acting planes, brake-drum houses at top of end incline with associated cabin. The incline is in three parts, each part has a brake-drum house at the upper end.

Source: Cadw scheduling description

Revised entry to the schedule in August 2004 - The scheduled area around the quarry barracks has been extended to include the two latrine blocks to the rear of each barrack block and also includes the small detached house, possibly the accommodation for a foreman or more senior worker which lies to the south west.

Source: Cadw scheduling description

FF 02/09/2004

2.

Y  dre' newydd (‘the new town’), also known as the Anglesey barracks, is the best-surviving of a number of barrack complexes which once functioned within Dinorwic quarry, adjacent to the scheduled A1 to A4 inclined planes (NPRN 40538). These housed members of the workforce, generally the less skilled, who lived too far away to travel every day, including the adjacent county of Anglesey. 

They were built after 1869, but probably before 1873, and were inhabited until 1937. They consist of single storey double rows of vernacular slate-built dwellings facing inwards, consisting of two rows of twelve cottage units, each divided into two rooms. The larger room contains the fireplace; a doorway leads into the smaller room.  Two latrine blocks are situated to the rear of each barrack block; a small detached house to the south west was possibly the accommodation for a steward. 

Statement of Significance:

An element within the relict Dinorwic Slate Quarry (NPRN 40538), the Anglesey barracks form a quarrymen’s residential complex which exemplifies the movement of the workforce from the hinterland to the quarries, and the persistence of older rural building forms and of the family unit in the industrial workplace.

Anglesey Barracks is part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, Component Part 2: Dinorwig Slate Quarry Mountain Landscape. Inscribed July 2020.

Sources:

  • Louise Barker & Dr David Gwyn, March 2018. Slate Landscapes of North-West Wales World Heritage Bid Statements of Significance. (Unpublished Report: Project 401b for Gwynedd Archaeological Trust)
  • Tirwedd Llechi Gogledd Orllewin Cymru / The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. Nomination as a World heritage Site (Nomination Document, January 2020)
  • Wales Slate World Heritage Site https://www.llechi.cymru/

  H. Genders Boyd, RCAHMW, March 2022