page_title: Rhosydd quarry
section_title: Second phase
hierarchical_section_title: Rhosydd quarry / History / Second phase
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing Rhosydd Quarry, near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, in 1919, with overlays to show tramways, adits and inclines
context_page_description: Rhosydd quarry was a slate quarry northeast of Porthmadog in North Wales.
  Small-scale working of the site began in the 1830s, but was hampered by the remote location, and the lack of a transport system to carry the slates to markets. The Rhosydd Slate Company was formed in 1853, and became a limited company in 1856. Transport was made more difficult by the attitude of the Cwmorthin quarry, through whose land the most obvious route to the Ffestiniog Railway ran. A solution was found in 1864, with the opening of the Croesor Tramway, to which the quarry was connected by one of the longest single-pitch Cable-hauled inclines in Wales. Huge amounts of money were spent on development work, and the company, unable to make adequate returns, went into voluntary liquidation in 1873.
  The quarry was auctioned in 1874, and the New Rhosydd Slate Quarry Company Ltd. was formed. Unlike its predecessor, the directors were all Welsh, and three-quarters of the shareholders were also from the local area. The quarry prospered for a while, but then profitability declined, and in 1900, a large section of the underground workings collapsed.
context_section_description: A sale notice produced in 1874 in preparation for an auction of the quarry and plant claimed that development work at Rhosydd had cost £150,000. The auction took place in Manchester on 27 June 1874, and the quarry was sold for just £29,500. The buyers created the New Rhosydd Slate Quarry Company Ltd on 10 October, and whereas the previous company had been dominated by Englishmen, three-quarters of the initial shares in the new company were bought by local people, from Ffestiniog, Porthmadog and the surrounding area. There were bankers, doctors, magistrates, merchants, quarry agents, solicitors and "gentlemen". The new company set its authorised capital at £80,000, consisting of 1,600 shares valued at £50 each, but only £44,000 was subscribed. Richard Hughes of Ynystowyn, Porthmadog acted as secretary until 1921, and the company office was in Ynystowyn. All of the directors were Welshmen, and remained so for the life of the quarry. Good dividends were paid between 1876 and 1889, but then profitability declined. In 1900, a large section of the underground workings collapsed, in what was known as the "great fall". The company now had to create a new quarry, with the only finance coming from their revenue account. Evan Jones took on the job of opening up new workings in 1906, when the previous agent, William W Morris, was retired, having shown that he was unable to complete such a task.
  Jones largely succeeded in carrying out this brief, as he was supported by three board members with a working knowledge of mining. The first was Morris, who had been given a seat on the board when he was retired; the second was also the agent at Llechwedd, another major quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog; and the third owned several quarries near Harlech. Complete success was thwarted by a serious slump in the slate trade in the period leading up the First World War, and then by the war itself. The quarry was shut down in 1914, as slate quarrying was declared to be a "non-essential industry", although two men were retained to maintain it, and it reopened when the war had finished, in 1919. However, company finances were in a poor state, and when the directors received an offer to purchase the quarry, the company went into voluntary liquidation on 12 July 1921, eleven days after its assets had been sold for £23,798. It was bought by two members of the Colman family, better known for producing the Colman's brand of mustard. They had also bought the Groesyddwyafon quarry in 1920, and continued to work both much as before, but struggled to find markets for the product, and Rhosydd closed on 13 September 1930. As during the First World War, two caretakers were retained, and the pumps continued to operate, in the hope that it could be reopened.
  Captain John S Matthews, the owner of the Craig Ddu and Manod quarries, bought the quarry in December 1947, together with the Croesor Quarry and the Congloy quarry, with a view to reopening all three, but his plans failed, and the pumps were turned off in 1948. The firm of W O Williams from Harlech removed the equipment for scrap, and the lease was terminated on 23 May 1948. Between 1949 and 1954, a few slatemakers from Llanberis worked on the site, making roofing slates from the slabs which had been used to build the walls of the mill. The quarry was purchased by McAlpine in the 1990s, but quarrying was not resumed.
caption: Map showing the quarry in 1919, with overlays to show historic tramways, adits and inclines, not all of which were present at any one time
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