Dinorwic Quarry: Hafod Owen Winding Engine, Locomotive Shed, Main Waterwheel and Housing

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The scheduled monument consists of three parts, all of which were part of the Dinorwic slate quarry, which ceased working in 1969. The site is related to two other scheduled monuments (CN198 and CN177).

Item A is a fifty-foot water wheel and its housing. It was erected in 1870 to drive the machinery in the quarry's workshops at Gilfach Ddu, now the National Slate Museum.

Item B is an engine shed to the NE of the main building, together with the adjacent yard, track bed and tunnel entrance. The engine shed is the original quarry locomotive shed and was also once home to the 'Fire Queen', an early steam locomotive built in 1848 for the Padarn Railway and now preserved at the Railway Museum at Penrhyn Castle.

Item C is the rebuilt Hafod Owen winding engine house, a slate haulage table incline and drum to the NW of the main building.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of the slate industry. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structures themselves may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.