page_title: Abercwmeiddaw quarry
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Abercwmeiddaw quarry / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: The remains of Abercwmeiddaw quarry in 2018, showing the partly dismantled mill and the trackbed of the original quarry incline
context_page_description: The Abercwmeiddaw quarry was a slate quarry that operated between the 1840s and 1938. It was located at Corris Uchaf about 5 miles north of Machynlleth, in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The quarry was connected to the Corris Railway via the Upper Corris Tramway which carried its products to the Cambrian Railways at Machynlleth for distribution.
context_section_description: The main working at Abercwmeiddaw was a large pit on the north of the site. The first workings here were underground, and the binocular tunnels were driven into the hillside to reach the Broad Vein. Later working was restricted to the open pit, though in the 1920s and 1930s underground extraction was resumed.
  Before 1900, slate extracted from the pit was lowered down a long incline to the mill. As the pit deepened further tramways were constructed to connect to the incline, and eventually a locomotive-worked tramway at mill level was laid, and the incline was taken out of use. The pit descended below the level of the mill and a tunnel was bored from the bottom of the pit to a point below the mill. A short water-balance incline was used to lift blocks of slab up from this lower tramway to the mill level. This incline was later converted to run off the mill's waterwheel and then later still from a Robey & Co undertype steam engine. Tunnels were extended from the pit into the slate vein and extensive underground chambers were worked.
  There were two mill buildings at the quarry. The original and larger mill stands to the south, above the Afon Deri. It had a 45 feet (14 m) diameter waterwheel that was sited 15 feet (4.6 m) below the mill level. This original mill is now demolished. The second mill is on the same level, but north of the original incline. It may never have been used as a mill, but the Robey steam engine was installed here and the chimney for engine was still standing in 2018.
  The output of the quarry mill was taken out by an exit incline and a short tramway that crossed the Afon Deri and connected to the Upper Corris Tramway. High retaining walls were built on the north bank of the Afon Deri to hold back the waste tips on the narrow site. Abercwmeiddaw trains were gravity worked down the tramway to Maespoeth Junction. From there they were taken down the Corris Railway to Machynlleth station, where the company maintain a transshipment wharf. Here slates were stacked and later loaded onto Cambrian Railways trains. Up until 1879, the quarry worked its own empty trains up from Maespoeth. From then on, the Corris Railway provided the horses to haul the quarry's waggons.
caption: Abercwmeiddaw quarry in 2018, with the remains of the second mill at the bottom with the original incline above and behind it
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