I knew that the meeting location was near Penrhyn Quarry, which was once the largest slate quarry in the world. But I didn't know that Felin Fawr was the processing site for slate and the building which had hosted my meeting was formerly a Slab Mill producing sawn slate for building purposes. There are useful Wikipedia articles on the slate industry in Wales, the quarry and Felin Fawr Slate Works.
Railway sidings at Felin Fawr in 2023. The meeting was located in the building on the left.
Slate from Penrhyn was used locally from the 16th century but development of the industry in the 1770s was due to Richard Pennant (see 'Notes on the Pennant family' below). Initially, slate was carried in panniers by horse down the mountain to the docks at Port Penrhyn for onward shipment.
Around 1800 the Penrhyn Railroad was constructed, using oval rails fitted at 2 foot and half an inch centre-to-centre, apparently incorporating the somewhat earlier Llandegai Tramway. Haulage was by horses and the most difficult sections were provided with inclined planes operated as a gravity balance cable railway with two tracks. A cable attached to an ascending empty wagon wound around a drum at the top of the incline and attached to a loaded wagon descending means no external power was required. Control was provided by braking on the drum.
In 1878 the operation was transferred to a new, parallel railway using steam locomotive haulage throughout. The inclined planes were eliminated by deviations in the route, increasing route length but easing the grades. Trackwork was conventional and track gauge (measured in the normal way, between inner edges of rails) became 1 foot 10 3/4 inches. In this form, as the Penrhyn Quarry Railway, the system operated until 1962. In 2012, enthusiasts reinstated the trackwork around Felin Fawr which I'd found on my visit. Various galas and operating days were held between 2012 and 2017 when, sadly, the initiative ceased.
Wikipedia has notes on the railways and various cable railways There's an excellent, detailed history of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway in posts by Roger Farnworth here and here.
I also found three interesting articles and photographs by Graham Stephen about the Felin Fawr site. The first clarifies the layout of the Slate Mill. The second shows what remained around 2012 of a waterwheel which powered the mill. The third shows the locomotive shed during the sadly short-lived attempt to restore the railway as a preserved line. The waterwheel was of the suspended pattern, built by De Winton of Caernarfon (who also supplied some of the early steam locomotives for the Penrhyn Quarry Railway). An article by Steve Mills for the Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology here outlines the advantages of suspension water wheels and rim gearing.
Former Penrhyn Quarry Railway 'Blanche' restored (and heavily modified) at Festiniog Railway (Photo: A.M.Hurrell, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Notes on the Pennant family
Thomas Pennant (died 1522) was the Abbot of Basingwerk Abbey, Holywell. His grandson Gifford Pennant became a successful sugar planter in Jamaica. On his death the profitable sugar plantations, worked by slave labour, passed to Gifford's son Edward Pennant (1672-1736) who further developed the holdings whilst rising in the Jamaican establishment. On Edward's death, the estates passed to his sons John, Samuel and Henry (with care provision for a fourth son). Despite the family wealth, life in Jamaica could be challenging and the three brothers returned to England, leaving the plantations to be administered by agents and entered English society. John Pennant became a successful Liverpool merchant. Liverpool was, of course, the port of entry for Jamaican sugar. Samuel and Henry died without heirs, leaving their estates to John. Through a partnership in the salt trade with Colonel Warburton John became interested in the medieval estate of Penrhyn which was part owned by Colonel Warburton's wife. John, with his second son Richard Pennant (1739-1808), started buying up the remainder of the Penrhyn estate. Richard Pennant's political career started in 1761 when he became the Member of Parliament for Petersfield but, when a vacancy arose in Liverpool in 1767 he was returned unopposed. He married Colonel Warburton's daughter Anne Susanna in 1767.
Upon the death of John Pennant in 1781, the Penrhyn estate effectively became reunited, Richard inheriting part from his father and the balance through his wife. He also became absentee owner of the sugar plantations in Jamaica. In the election of 1780 he lost his seat in the House of Commons and was subsequently created !st Baron Penrhyn in 1783. Because this new creation was an Irish peerage, he was not allowed to sit in the House of Lords but able to stand for the House of Commons, allowing him to regain the Liverpool seat in 1784. Richard spoke in the House of Commons about trade and Liverpool concerns and remained opposed to the abolition of slavery. He was an enthusiastic supporter of projects to develop his Welsh estates and created the massive Penrhyn quarry. Previously, individuals would pay the landowner for the right to extract slate which was brought out by packhorses. Richard created an industry where the landowner took control of extraction and transport, paying employees a wage. He expanded the market for slate by building Port Penrhyn, Bangor, connected to the quarry by horse-drawn railroad.
On Richard's death in 1808, since he had no children, his Baronetcy lapsed and the ownership of the estates passed to his second cousin provided he added 'Pennant' to his name, becoming George Hay Dawkins-Pennant (1764-1840). George married for the first time in 1807 and had two daughters. He continued to develop the Penrhyn estate and received government compensation for the freeing of his slaves when slavery was abolished. In 1833, his elder daughter and co-heiress Juliana Isabella Mary Dawkins-Pennant married a Grenadier Guards officer, Edward Gordon Douglas (1800-1886).
By Royal licence, Edward Gordon Douglas changed his name to Edward Douglas-Pennant, allowing him to inherit the Penrhyn estate from his wife's father, George. In 1866 Edward Douglas-Pennant was raised to the peerage in a second creation of the title Baron Penrhyn, this time as an 'English' peerage. Developments at Penrhyn quarry and the Penrhyn estates continued. By his first wife, Juliana Isabella Mary Dawkins-Pennant, he had two sons and three daughters. During the 1868 general election, 80 quarry workers declined to vote for the Baron's son George who, at that time, was pursuing a political career and were sacked. After the death of his first wife, the 1st Baron re-married and had further children
The 1st Baron died in 1886 and his elder son George Douglas-Pennant (1836-1907) became the 2nd Baron, thereafter concentrating on the running of the various businesses. Penrhyn quarry workers went on strike in 1896, leading to closure of the quarry for 11 months. The 2nd Baron was unrelenting and the strikers resumed work on the same terms. A second strike in 1900 lasted for three years, earning 'The Great Strike of Penrhyn' a special place in the history of the Trades Union Congress. The 2nd Baron was clearly a complex man of strong convictions, hinted at in the biography in the Dictionary of National Biography. After reading about the turbulence of the nineteenth century, I decided not to pursue the Pennant history into the 20th century.
Notes on Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle was clearly important to the Pennant family and although externally the castle gives the appearance of being ancient, it is not. Between 1822 and 1837, the architect Thomas Hopper (1776-1856) created the imposing appearance. The castle is regarded as his finest work and listed Grade 1. As a National Trust site, it is open to the public and the former Stables houses a railway museum including Penrhyn Quarry Railway artefacts. There's an article about the railway museum on Wikipedia here and there's an entertaining record of the railway museum activities written by one of the former museum volunteers, Keith Jaggers, here. There's lots more about the Jagger's family history and Keith's interest in railways here. Over 2,000 documents from Penrhyn Castle have been archived at Bangor University, providing a valuable insight into transatlantic slave trade and plantation slavery. Dr. Marian Gwyn has researched these areas and there's an interesting article by her outlining the connection between Penrhyn Castle and slavery here.
List of referenced posts on other websites
Slate Industry in Wales (Wikipedia).
Penrhyn Quarry (Wikipedia).
Felin Fawr Slate Works (Wikipedia).
Penrhyn Quarry Railway (Wikipedia).
Cable railway (Wikipedia).
Penrhyn Quarry Roger Farnworth: Penrhyn Quarry Railway (Part 1).
Penrhyn Quarry Roger Farnworth: Penrhyn Quarry Railway (Part 2).
Suspension water wheels and rim gearing
FELIN FAWR WORKS Graham Stephen (GeoTopoi).
FELIN FAWR WATERWHEEL Graham Stephen (GeoTopoi).
FELIN FAWR LOCOMOTIVE SHED Graham Stephen (GeoTopoi).
Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (Wikipedia).
George Hay Dawkins-Pennant (Wikipedia).
Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (Wikipedia).
George Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn (Wikipedia).
The great Penrhyn quarry strike (TUC).
Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement.
Penrhyn Castle (Wikipedia).
Thomas Hopper (architect of Penrhyn Castle) (Wikipedia).
Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum (Wikipedia).
Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum: Vol 2 (Keith Jaggers).
Keith and Elizabeth Jaggers Family Heritage.
Penrhyn Castle and Slavery (Dr. Marian Gwyn).
My pictures
My pictures at Felin Fawr Cyf (showing the reconstructed trackwork) are here.
