Good to spend time with newage and fluffy again - always interesting and fun with lots of good banter.
When you are standing on a slate mountain it's not always easy to know which 'quarry' (most slate is mined not quarried despite the name) you are in. This is Fotty and Bowydd looking over towards Lechwedd, Oakeley and Cwmorthin
Continuing up and North East we pass adits exposed by recent 'untopping'. It's cheaper to blow the roof off the mine to get the unworked slate now.
Further and we reach the workshops and dressing mills of Maenofferen
A few years ago these were described as near perfect and the best examples of slate mining activity in the country. Sadly things are not what they were. Perhaps now that Greaves have added the 'Quarry Explorer' to their site activities they will be inclined to halt the decay.
Planing table (the depth adjuster lies on the floor smashed in the left background)
When you are standing on a slate mountain it's not always easy to know which 'quarry' (most slate is mined not quarried despite the name) you are in. This is Fotty and Bowydd looking over towards Lechwedd, Oakeley and Cwmorthin
Continuing up and North East we pass adits exposed by recent 'untopping'. It's cheaper to blow the roof off the mine to get the unworked slate now.
Further and we reach the workshops and dressing mills of Maenofferen
A few years ago these were described as near perfect and the best examples of slate mining activity in the country. Sadly things are not what they were. Perhaps now that Greaves have added the 'Quarry Explorer' to their site activities they will be inclined to halt the decay.
Planing table (the depth adjuster lies on the floor smashed in the left background)
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