Ty Mawr West slate quarry is located on the south side of the B4418 road between Nantlle and Talysarn. It lies adjacent to the Ty Mawr East quarry (NPRN 420711). Active in the 1860s, the quarry was a pit and hillside working that developed into an open pit, accessed by a an open cut. As work progressed downwards a Blondin carriage system was used. Material was reduced in a small mill and taken to the road by a long shallow incline. Up to 40 men were employed but output was well below 1000 tons per annum. By 1898 only seven men were employed. The quarry closed in the 1930s.
Pit, adit and shaft survived in 1991. Also, a number of buildings, including the mill, Blondin bases, a concrete machinery base (for a late oil engine?), and a 'lash-up' balanced wire incline used in late re-working of tips. The embanked incline is now much eroded.
Source: A.J.Richards, Gazeteer of the Welsh Slate Industry (1991), p.58.

RCAHMW, 16 March 2015


Nantle Vale Slate Quarry shown in-use on OS County series (Caernarvon. XXI.9 1889, 1900), therafter apparently divided between Ty Mawr W & Ty Mawr E (see Nprn400634)(County series 3rd ed. 1916): quarry in existance 1882, closed in about 1910.
Engine house (Nprn275742) shown in use only on County series 1st ed. (1889) may be associated with Nantle Vale rather than with Ty Mawr E.
(source: Lindsay 1974 (Hist. N Wales Slate Ind.), 326, 332)
RCAHMW AP94-CS 0985
RCAHMW AP945127/49-50
J.Wiles 16.06.04