Oakeley Quarry Tips

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The monument comprises the relict remains of the Oakeley Quarry Tips. The designated area is dominated by an extensive area of tipping spread across more than 23 hectares, known as Domen Fawr, but also retains several visually striking features including the remains of the Glan Y Don Viaduct, the zig-zag slate steps of the Miners’ Path and a number of impressive inclined planes.

The three quarries owned by the Oakeley family – Holland’s Quarry, Mathew’s Quarry and Palmerston’s Quarry – were amalgamated in the later 19th century to become known as Oakeley Quarry. The quarry was the largest underground mining operation in the slate industry and the third largest quarry after Penrhyn and Dinorwic, at its peak producing an output of almost 60,000 tons per annum and employing more than 1700 men. The underground works were laid out across 26 floors and included 50 miles of rail tracks while the surface infrastructure included 12 mills, an extensive network of loco-powered tramways and a number of uphaulage and gravity inclined planes.

Many of the historic surface features have been removed by later quarrying activity but the need to continue tipping in the same location has resulted in some of the largest and most impressive tips in the Ffestiniog area. The tips not only preserve a number of important relict features but also retain significant archaeological potential since numerous defunct levels, inclines, tramways and other features are known to have been buried within the tip.

The north end of the scheduled area includes the 'Spion Kop' incline, built in 1900, to connect Bonc Goedan with floor DE at Pen y Bont. It survives substantially intact, with some sleepers in situ and retains a substantial winder house with brake gear at the northern end. At the foot of the incline are the remains of the Welsh Slate Company's viaduct of 1857; originally constructed as a timber trestle viaduct supported on slate pillars. Bridge abutments and two substantial slate pillars survive following the demolition of the viaduct in 1970.

Located centrally within the scheduled area the iconic slate steps of the zig-zag miners’ track cut through the slate tips to connect the town and quarry. Adjacent to the track are the substantial remains of the main exit incline to Dinas on the Ffestiniog Railway, built c. 1905. The incline is orientated N-S, is 280m in length and retains a substantial winder house at its head which is an important skyline feature visible for many miles. The southern end of the designated area is defined by the remains of an early incline built c.1867 to serve Nyth y Gigfran quarry, a series of levels which later became part of the wider Oakeley underground working.

The monument is of national importance as a well preserved relic of the slate quarry industry and for its potential to enhance our understanding of the industry. Oakeley Quarry Tips preserve several important landscape-scale features and retain significant archaeological potential.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. The scheduled areas is a large irregular polygon c.1.2km NE-SW by c.200m transversely and centred on NGR 269392, 346592.