Western Slab Mill at Felin Fawr Slate Works

Cadw's description

Location

Situated on the western side of the Felin Fawr Slate Works, which adjoin the former Penrhyn Slate Quarry Railway and the west bank of the Afon Galedffrwd.

History

First references to a mill here date from 1798, when 'Y Felin Fawr' was planned. It was operational by 1803 and maybe earlier; new mills were built in the 1830s and 40s, but again superceded by the present buildings in 1865-6. The mill complex was once the principal slate and slab manufacturing yard for the Penrhyn Slate Quarry, one of the most productive in Wales.

Exterior

Long rectangular building, aligned roughly north-south. Snecked rubble stone with hammer-dressed quoins and voussoirs; gable-ended slate roof with slate coping and oversailing eaves. Slate slab construction to lower and narrower engine house on south. Five regularly spaced and opposing segmental arched openings with stone voussoirs over deeply recessed doors; circular scalloped brace-plates to both walls; large rooflights with glazing bars in both slopes. Engine house has infilled pointed arch in south gable end.

Interior

Interior retains 7 massive timber roof trusses of queen-strut type with tie-beams supported by open-work cast-iron wall brackets.

Reason for designation

Included at grade II* as an especially fine slab mill which, together with the eastern slab mill, is an integral part of the remarkable complex of buildings at the Felin Fawr Slate works; the mills are amongst the finest of their kind in Wales. The site is historically important as marking the introduction of industrial processes to the sawing of slates.