Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Water Balance Incline at Aberllefenni Slate Quarry
Corris, Gwynedd, Wales
A scheduled monument in Corris, Gwynedd, recorded as Incline (Post Medieval/Modern).
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Incline
- Period
- Post Medieval/Modern
- Date of designation
- 11 June 1998
- Community
- Corris
- Unitary authority
- Gwynedd
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 52.67458, -3.82402
- SAM number
- ME185
- Cadw record number
- 3960
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBayerische Staatsbibliothek, MunichUniversity Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1588 map "Ortelius, Abraham: Theatro De La Tierra Universal. 0" (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1588 · Ortelius, Abraham: Theatro De La Tierra Universal. 0 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich)
- 1608 · (13) Cambriae Typus. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1899 · 149 Barmouth (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1901 · Sheet 9 and 10. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- Sheet 4 North Wales (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Cadw's description
Summary description and reason for designation
The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.
The monument comprises the remains of a water-balance up-haulage incline for transporting slate waste to tips on the hillside. The incline survives almost intact, with its drum house and drum, brake mechanism, wire rope, and tank waggon.
Slate quarries have been operating in the Aberllefenni area since 1500 or earlier. The quarries probably began working regularly in 1810 but became most active after investment in rail transport and mills in the 1870s. Production of high quality slate slabs was from adits and rubble had to be dumped in a restricted gorge. Water-balance inclines enabled tipping on the high sides of the gorge by using water to raise loaded waggons by counter-balance.
The monument is the best surviving example of a water-balance incline in the Welsh slate industry. It is of national importance as a well preserved area within a slate quarry, which contains important evidence of slate quarrying, preparation, transport and infrastructure. Inclines may be part of a larger cluster of industrial monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.
The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.
Nearby in the register
- Water Balanced Incline and DrumhouseIndustrialunder 1 mi
- The Bell HouseIndustrialunder 1 mi
- Plas AberllefenniDomesticunder 1 mi
- Cymerau CottagesDomesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.