A recent pleasant little bimble that included some mining history.
I have a lot of info about these mines but it's mostly geological stuff that is incomprehensible. The three mines mentioned were mostly worked as seperate ventures (there's a couple more connected but with no surface remains). Part opencast but also with extensive underground workings (not all linked). Originally the output went via cart to the coast and then by boat to (mostly) Ellesmere Port and thence by road to Brymbo. As output increased an aerial ropeway was constructed between the Benallt & Rhiw workings to a jetty East of Rhiw. Later still a three foot guage railway was installed below the Bodwydogg incline and down through Nant Gadwen to a new pier where several boatloads of ore went out to Ellesmere Port daily.
Eventually, however the various workings were joined and expanded by the MoS during WW2 which involved a large increase in output from the Nant underground workings.
On with some photos...first off up at Benallt/Rhiw
Opencast workings (hidden below right are two uninteresting magazines which look to date from the MoS era)
Incline from opencast (at the top of the incline there is a fenced open shaft, it's not known how much of the underground workings remain accessible here)
Also visible near the top of the incline is an old boiler
...and the terminus of the aerial ropeway
Looking down towards the later Bodwyddog incline. Unusually the drum and cable survive without the drumhouse
Guard cows? (gratuitous cuteness)
For military fans one of the Cardigan Bay Range RADARs is sited above the mines
Then a short distance away at the coast
Upper incline drumhouse (the railway came to this level)
Looking down the second incline to another drumhouse and weighbridge office. The notch in the headland is where the lower incline went down to the jetty. None of the jetty remains but at low tide there are the remains of a couple of sheave wheels and some carts to be found amongst the rather large boulders.
Lower incline driumhouse and weighbridge office. The internal narrow guage tramway was at this level.
Some underground goodliness
Whilst this looks like stoping to surface it was actually worked from the surface.
One of several trial adits on the opposite side of the valley. It's straight and runs to a blind
(edited to correct position of one image)
I have a lot of info about these mines but it's mostly geological stuff that is incomprehensible. The three mines mentioned were mostly worked as seperate ventures (there's a couple more connected but with no surface remains). Part opencast but also with extensive underground workings (not all linked). Originally the output went via cart to the coast and then by boat to (mostly) Ellesmere Port and thence by road to Brymbo. As output increased an aerial ropeway was constructed between the Benallt & Rhiw workings to a jetty East of Rhiw. Later still a three foot guage railway was installed below the Bodwydogg incline and down through Nant Gadwen to a new pier where several boatloads of ore went out to Ellesmere Port daily.
Eventually, however the various workings were joined and expanded by the MoS during WW2 which involved a large increase in output from the Nant underground workings.
On with some photos...first off up at Benallt/Rhiw
Opencast workings (hidden below right are two uninteresting magazines which look to date from the MoS era)
Incline from opencast (at the top of the incline there is a fenced open shaft, it's not known how much of the underground workings remain accessible here)
Also visible near the top of the incline is an old boiler
...and the terminus of the aerial ropeway
Looking down towards the later Bodwyddog incline. Unusually the drum and cable survive without the drumhouse
Guard cows? (gratuitous cuteness)
For military fans one of the Cardigan Bay Range RADARs is sited above the mines
Then a short distance away at the coast
Upper incline drumhouse (the railway came to this level)
Looking down the second incline to another drumhouse and weighbridge office. The notch in the headland is where the lower incline went down to the jetty. None of the jetty remains but at low tide there are the remains of a couple of sheave wheels and some carts to be found amongst the rather large boulders.
Lower incline driumhouse and weighbridge office. The internal narrow guage tramway was at this level.
Some underground goodliness
Whilst this looks like stoping to surface it was actually worked from the surface.
One of several trial adits on the opposite side of the valley. It's straight and runs to a blind
(edited to correct position of one image)
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