Explosives Magazine with
Snowdon Behind
Abandoned - not forgotten
18th Century Cornish Miners' Cottages, Simdde’r Dylluan, Drws-y-Coed, Nantlle, Wales
This remote valley in Snowdonia once was the world's most important source of copper. Drws-y-coed is believed to have been worked since medieval times and it is known that there were rich copper workings in the area at the time of Edward 1 in 1284. However, serious mining started here in 1761 creating something of a 'Gold Rush'. Men came from Cornwall and Scotland to work at Simdde’r Dylluan. They were successful and at the end of the 18th century mining flourished because of the high demand for copper during Napoleon’s war against Britain.
Little remains to be seen today, but hidden away lie these ruins of the cottages build by Cornish miners in the 1760's. Fashioned from the massive boulders strewn along the valley floor and with Snowdon as their backdrop (centre distance in the photo), these cottages are a testament to the lengths men had to go to make a living far from home.
17th Century Farm Cottages, Pen-y-Bryn, Dorothea Quarry, Nantlle, Wales
A row of stone cottages dating from the 17th Century or earlier. They were originally part of a barn that was later cut down to make accommodation for the farm workers. The cottages have ancient beams, hewn to shape with rough hand tools and the walls are made from local igneous rock. The layout was that of a crog loft - a loft over the half of the cottage furthest from the cooking hearth used for sleeping in. Headroom was minimal.
At the beginning of the 1800's, quarrying for slate started at nearby Pen-y-Bryn and the farm soon found itself surrounded by deep pits. In the 1830's, the cottages were converted into barracks accommodation for the quarrymen who travelled miles for the work. Today they are derelict, having escaped conversion to holiday homes due to their limited access, but the story these cottages tell reflects the changing economy of rural Wales.
The Ruins of 'Cae'r Hegle', Trefriw, Wales - Home to my Great Grandfather in the 1870's
My Great Grandfather was Thomas Roberts, born in the
Conwy Valley in North Wales in 1854.
In 1871, at the age of 17, Thomas was living
and working on a farm called 'Cae'r Hegla' high above Trefriw. He was a farm
servant for a Peter Thomas and his wife and two young children. Peter is recorded
as a "farmer of sixty acres and gamekeeper."
I visited the ruins of Cae'r Hegla, touched the same door frames and
stones Thomas had touched some 150 years ago, and felt closer to my Welsh heritage.
'Bwthyn fi Nain' - a traditional Welsh folk song from Dyffryn Conwy where my Great Grandfather lived
Poem AND MUSIC 'Bwthyn fy Nain'Derelict Small-holding, Meencarrick, Gortahork, Donegal, Eire
County Donegal is often labelled the ‘forgotten
county’. Lying in the extreme northwest of Ireland it is only physically connected to
the rest of the Republic
of Ireland by a tiny internal border.
Donegal was one of the worst affected parts of Ireland
during the Great Famine of the late 1840's. Swathes of the County were
devastated, with many areas becoming permanently depopulated and with vast numbers emigrating.
The partition of Ireland in the
early 1920's also had a massive direct impact on Donegal. Partition cut the County
off, economically and administratively, from Derry, which had acted for
centuries as its main port. Partition also meant that Donegal was now
almost entirely cut off from the rest of the Irish Free State in
which it now found itself.
As a result, Donegal’s wild and remote rural areas
are full of abandoned small-holdings like this, that serve as a reminder of the
hardship endured by its people.
Talysarn Hall Chapel, Nantlle, Wales
Talysarn
Hall was built in the 18th century by the wealthy Robinson family
who owned Dorothea Slate Quarry. The Hall predates the development of large-scale
quarry workings and originally sat as part of a village adjacent to the main
Talysarn to Nantlle Road.
On
the death of Thomas Robinson in 1905, the Hall and outbuildings were utilised as quarry offices. The former Hall Chapel was converted into a house for the
gardener of the estate.
However,
by 1927 Dorothea Quarry, with its deep pit, was growing ever closer to Talysarn
and the decision was made to completely abandon the old village, Hall and
Chapel and move the 2,000 villagers to a new location.
Today the ruins of the old Hall and its Chapel remain
buried in woodland, now overgrown and reclaimed by nature. It is a story of the
gradual transformation of a rural environment into an industrial landscape.
Capel Ratgoed, Aberllefenni, Powys, Wales
Cwm
Ratgoed is a very remote and beautiful mid-Welsh valley. No roads - no people.
Just sheep, moss and the organic remains of the community that lived and worked
here in the 1800's.
In the 1870's, the colourfully named Horatio Nelson Hughes, a wealthy Liverpudlian shipping tycoon, came to the area
to exploit its slate. He opened Ratgoed Slate Quarry and built himself an
elaborate Hall. Hughes also constructed a village to serve his mine, with
stables, a smithy, shop, bakery and an elegant Calvinist Methodist Chapel with
a manse for its minister. The Chapel opened in 1871 and was made entirely of local
slate with ornate arches and an enamelled slate font.
However,
the slate vein that the quarry sought to exploit was badly faulted here and as
a result output was small. Only eight men were employed by 1898. The quarry
closed and re-opened several times until it finally ceased operating in 1946.
By then Ratgoed village and its Chapel had been abandoned.
Today
its remains lie buried amongst the trees. The beautiful Chapel walls still
stand, but with a fallen tree as the only congregation.
Fishermans' Cottage, Niarbyl, Isle of Man
Niarbyl, meaning ‘the tail’ in Manx for the way it extends
into the Irish Sea, is a wild, rocky promontory on the southwest coast of the
Isle of Man facing Eire. Niarbyl Bay and this little cottage, has been
acquired by Manx National Heritage so that it may be preserved. If
it seems familiar, then it has been the location for many a film.
In the 19th century Niarbyl was a busy little port, with a
fleet of about thirty boats. There were five thatched cottages, three of which sold ale and
spirits. Boats with crews of eight men fished for herring in summer and for cod and
haddock in winter.
Today Niarbyl has an arcane character and its connexions with mythology are well documented, especially relating to
mermaids. The small rounded shiny white quartz pebbles on the beach are said to
be the currency used by the underwater mermaid kingdom that is alleged to exist
off Niarbyl bay. 17th century legends tell of ‘Finn-men’ who frequented
the coast here and were supposed to have paddled their seal-skin canoes across
from Norway single-handed.
Perhaps the most famous legend concerns an old man with long
white hair, seated in a boat, which seemed to be part of himself, just off Niarbyl.
He sang such beautiful music that the people used to gather on the shore to
listen to him. The tune he sang is called ‘Arrane Ghelby’.
