1.
Gwynedd
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Gwynedd is an area in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. As a local government area, it is the second biggest in Wales in terms of geographical area, a majority of the population are Welsh-speaking. The name Gwynedd is also used for a county, covering the two local government areas of Gwynedd and the Isle of Anglesey. Culturally and historically, the name can also be used for most of North Wales, the current area is 2,548 square km with a population as measured in the 2011 Census of 121,874. Gwynedd is the home of Bangor University and includes the scenic Llŷn Peninsula, the largest settlements are Bangor, Caernarfon, Bethesda and Ffestiniog. The largest settlement in the south is Tywyn, in the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant collection of tribes - the same root as the Irish fine, meaning tribe. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə is the Indo-European stem, the Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a stone from c. AD500 which reads, Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis, the name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974, Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, the county was divided into five districts, Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey. The remainder of the county was constituted as an area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996, the present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, the pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, a further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police, the Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, the county has a mixed economy
2.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
3.
Local government in Wales
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For local government purposes, Wales has since 1 April 1996 been divided into 22 single-tier principal areas. The elected councils of these areas are responsible for the provision of all government services, including education, social work, environmental protection. Below these there are also elected community councils to which responsibility for specific aspects of the application of local policy may be devolved. The Queen appoints a Lord Lieutenant to represent her in each of the eight preserved counties of Wales, subdivisions of Wales created for such purposes as the provision of police and emergency services and the organization of the National Health Service are made up of combinations of principal areas. There are six cities in total in Wales, in addition to the three areas with city status, the communities of Bangor, St Davids and St Asaph also have the status. City status is granted by letters patent, the status was, however, not officially recognised for many years. When city status was restored to St Davids in 1994, St Asaph town council submitted a petition for the same purpose, the petition was refused as, unlike St Davids, there was no evidence of any charter or letters patent in the past conferring the status. Applications for city status in competitions in 2000 and 2002 were unsuccessful, There are 22 principal areas in Wales. They came into being on 1 April 1996 by virtue of the Local Government Act 1994, eleven are named as counties, including the Cities and Counties of Cardiff and Swansea, and eleven are styled as county boroughs. In 2002 Newport was granted city status, and the county borough is now styled as the City of Newport, Welsh language forms are given in parentheses, except where there is no English equivalent. Locations of each council headquarters are indicated by yellow markers, the current names of certain unitary authority areas are different from those specified in the Local Government Act 1994. Elections planned for 2012 were delayed until 2013, the historic counties of Wales are ancient subdivisions of Wales, used for various functions for several hundred years. The oldest date from 1138 By 1066 the whole of England had been divided into counties, the first counties, Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire, were established in the 1240s. In 1284 the Principality of Gwynedd was divided into three counties, Anglesey, Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire and this can be regarded as an arrangement imposed on Wales by the English during the last years of Prince Llywelyn II. Before the end of the century, Flintshire had also become a county, the formation of counties was completed under the Act of Union 1536, which created Pembrokeshire, Montgomeryshire, Denbighshire, Radnorshire, Glamorganshire, Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire. These 13 counties were the main subdivisions of Wales from 1889 until the implementation in 1974 of the Local Government Act 1972. At the lowest level of subdivision in Wales are the communities. They may have elected community councils which perform a number of roles, such as providing local facilities, community councils are the equivalent of English parish councils
4.
Ffestiniog
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Ffestiniog is a community in Gwynedd in Wales, containing several villages, in particular the settlements of Llan Ffestiniog and Blaenau Ffestiniog. It has a population of 4,875, Ffestiniog was a parish in Cantref Ardudwy, in 1284, Ardudwy became part of the county of Meirionnydd, which became an administrative county in 1888. Mary Evans founded a sect in Ffestiniog around 1780, whose believers held that she had married Christ in a ceremony held in Ffestiniog church, the sect soon died out after her death. The parish was created a district in 1894. On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Ffestiniog Urban District was abolished, becoming merged with districts to form Meirionnydd District. Ffestiniog became a community with a town council. Ffestiniog Golf Club was founded in 1893, the club closed at the end of March 2014. Celtic place-name in *-ākon place of, then, place belonging to, territory of > Old Welsh -auc, the form -iog with an additional /i/ can be explained by the preceding element, which is a personal name ending with -i-us, Festinius. The whole name should be *Festiniākon, probably same name as Festigny Festiniog and Blaenau Railway Ffestiniog power station Ffestiniog Railway Official website Festiniog. Blacks Picturesque Guide to North Wales
5.
Preserved counties of Wales
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The preserved counties of Wales are the current areas used in Wales for the ceremonial purposes of lieutenancy and shrievalty. They are based on the created by the Local Government Act 1972 and used for local government. The Local Government Act 1994 abolished the eight ceremonial counties created by the Local Government Act 1972, however, it created the concept of preserved counties based on their areas, to be used for purposes such as Lieutenancy. The Defence Act 1842 – Lieutenants are those appointed to preserved counties, the Sea Fisheries Act 1967 – relevant portions of the sea shore shall be deemed to be within preserved counties. There were however two local government areas, Caerphilly and Conwy, split between preserved counties, the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales were instructed by the National Assembly for Wales on 11 March 2002 to undertake a review of preserved county boundaries. The boundary between Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan was also to be re-aligned to reflect changes in local government boundaries. The Assembly accepted these proposals such that from 2 April 2003 each preserved county now encompasses between one and five local government areas. The boundary between Mid Glamorgan and Powys was further modified on 1 April 2010 to reflect the 2009 local government boundary changes in the Vaynor area. The population figures are estimates for 2007 from the Office for National Statistics. Historic counties of Wales Local government in Wales Ceremonial counties of England Shires of Scotland
6.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
7.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
8.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
9.
Postcodes in the United Kingdom
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Postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the GPO, a full postcode is known as a postcode unit and designates an area with a number of addresses or a single major delivery point. For example, the postcode of the University of Roehampton in London is SW15 5PU, the postcode of GCHQ is GL51 0EX, where GL signifies the postal town of Gloucester. The postal town refers to an area and does not relate to a specific town. GL51 is one of the postcodes for the town of Cheltenham which is where GCHQ is located, the London post town covers 40% of Greater London. On inception it was divided into ten districts, EC, WC, N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W. The S and NE sectors were later abolished and these divisions changed little, usually only changed for operational efficiency. Some older road signs in Hackney still indicate the North East sector/district, following the successful introduction of postal districts in London, the system was extended to other large towns and cities. Liverpool was divided into Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western districts in 1864/65, in 1917 Dublin – then still part of the United Kingdom – was divided into numbered postal districts. These continue in use in a form by An Post. In 1923 Glasgow was divided in a way to London. In January 1932 the Postmaster General approved the designation of some urban areas into numbered districts. In November 1934 the Post Office announced the introduction of numbered districts in every town in the United Kingdom large enough to justify it. Pamphlets were issued to each householder and business in ten areas notifying them of the number of the district in which their premises lay, the pamphlets included a map of the districts, and copies were made available at local head post offices. The public were invited to include the district number in the address at the head of letters. A publicity campaign in the following year encouraged the use of the district numbers, the slogan for the campaign was For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper. A poster was fixed to every box in the affected areas bearing the number of the district. Every post office in the district was also to display this information
10.
Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom
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Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom are administered by the UK governments Office of Communications. For this purpose Ofcom established a telephone numbering plan, known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, since 28 April 2001, almost all geographic numbers and most non-geographic numbers have 9 or 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code. All mobile telephone numbers have 10 national numbers after the 0 trunk code, regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number portion has more digits. Local customer numbers are four to eight figures long, the total number of digits is ten, but in a very few areas the total may be nine digits. The area code is referred to as an STD or a dialling code in the UK. The code allocated to the largest population is for London, the code allocated to the largest area is for all of Northern Ireland. The UK Numbering Plan also applies to three British Crown dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man—even though they are not part of the UK itself. Possible number formats for UK telephone numbers are as follows, Number ranges starting 01 can have NSN length as 10 or 9 digits, the 0800 range can have NSN length as 10,9 or 7 digits. The 0845 range can have NSN length as 10 or 7 digits, the 0500 range has NSN length as 9 digits only. There are no numbers in the UK with an NSN length of 8 digits. Geographic telephone numbers in the UK always have nine or ten digits, four-digit area codes have either six-digit subscriber numbers or a mix of five- and six-digit subscriber numbers. Xxxxxx This is the used by most areas. It has an area code and a six digit subscriber number. These area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995. Just short of 581 areas use this format, and the area range from 01200 to 01998. A small number of areas also have a few subscriber numbers that have only five digits. That is, almost all area codes now have only six digit local numbers, six of the four-digit area codes are known as mixed areas as they share those four digits with the twelve five-digit area codes. The numbers therefore have only nine digits after the initial zero trunk code and these area codes were changed by adding a 1 directly after the initial zero as a part of PhONEday in 1995
11.
North Wales Police
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North Wales Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing North Wales. The headquarters are in Colwyn Bay, with headquarters in St Asaph, Caernarfon. Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1967 by the amalgamation of the previous Denbighshire Constabulary, Flintshire Constabulary, in 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 created an administrative county of Gwynedd covering the western part of the police area. As a result of this, the force was renamed North Wales Police on 1 April 1974. Under proposals made by the Home Secretary on 6 February 2006, the North Wales Police Authority consisted of 17 members, of whom 9 were councillors,3 were magistrates and 5 were independent members. The councillors were appointed by a Joint Committee of the unitary authority councils of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, the Police Authority was replaced by the Office of the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner in November 2012. On 4 May 2011, North Wales Police completed a major restructure, many have attributed this phenomenon to its former Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, who accepts he is obsessed with speeding motorists. He has often courted controversy and publicity through his views on speeding motorists. The Sun newspaper dubbed him the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taleban and he is also credited with modernising the organisations infrastructure in comparison with other areas of Britain. In April 2007, Brunstrom came under fire for an incident in which he showed a photograph of the head of a biker in a press meeting without the familys permission. He maintains that it was a meeting, a point made both on the invitation and verbally, and that no details of the picture should have been leaked. Many people feel that just because it was a closed meeting does not mean that normal moral boundaries can be overstepped without fear of retribution. Other people note that the motorcyclist who was killed, caused the accident that severely disabled the other car driver, North Wales Police has also attracted attention due to its investigation into allegations of anti-Welsh comments by TV personality Anne Robinson and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The force was believed to have carried out these investigations following complaints from members of the public, the 10-month investigation into the Prime Minister was dropped on 11 July 2006 due to a lack of evidence. It had cost £1,656, whereas the Anne Robinson investigation cost £3,800, in 2006 the force attracted even more widespread publicity when a retired Detective Sergeant was prosecuted for alleged homophobic remarks made to a van full of officers in Wrexham. As with all other police force North Wales Police have Police Community Support Officer s. As of 31 March 2011 North Wales Police have 159 PCSOs, the issuing of handcuffs to PCSOs has been controversial
12.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association
13.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards
14.
Welsh Ambulance Service
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The Welsh Ambulance Service, formally the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust, is the national ambulance service for Wales and one of the three NHS trusts in the country. It was established on 1 April 1998 and has 2,500 staff providing ambulance, the Welsh Ambulance Services headquarters is located at H. M. Stanley Hospital, St Asaph, Denbighshire. The service is divided into three regions, Central and West Region – based at Ty Maes Y Gruffudd, Cefn Coed Hospital, Cockett. The Welsh Ambulance Service provides, Emergency Medical Services - This service responds to emergency 999 calls, a standard crew combination for this service would normally consist of a Paramedic and an Emergency Medical Technician. However double Paramedic / double Technician crews are not uncommon, as of 2013, the majority of the EMS fleet consists of Wilker Mercedes Benz 519 Sprinter Ambulances, And Honda CRV / Ford Focus Rapid Response Vehicles. Helicopter Emergency Medical Service - Wales is served by three helicopters operated by Wales Air Ambulance, each helicopter crew consists of a pilot and two critical care Paramedics. The service is charity funded and operated by Bond Air Services but carries the Welsh ambulance service trust logo, equipment, as of 2012, all three aircraft operated by the charity are Eurocopter EC135s Patient Care Services - This service deals with the planned care aspect of ambulance work. PCS staff usually provide transport between home and healthcare facilities or some inter-hospital transfers, NHS Direct Wales supports EMS Operations by providing clinically triage for Green 3 calls that are deemed suitable. More than 45% of 999 calls have a disposition of not requiring 999 conveyance, in addition during times of escalation other calls deemed suitable are triaged. Community First Responders - CFRs are volunteers from the community trained in basic first aid, oxygen administration and they are used by the ambulance service mostly in rural areas to provide basic care, such as Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation before an EMS crew arrives. As CFRs are usually sent to local calls in specified communities, they often arrive before an EMS ambulance crew, even without the use of blue lights. Whilst most CFR teams are the responsibility of WAST, a number of teams are made up of regular divisions from St John Ambulance in Wales although this does not give them any exemptions. In 2012 a strategic review of the service was commissioned by the Welsh Assembly Government and was conducted by Professor Siobhan McClelland, national Health Service NHS Direct Wales Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Direct Wales
15.
Wales (European Parliament constituency)
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Wales is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 4 MEPs using the method of party-list proportional representation. The constituency corresponds to the boundaries of Wales, one of the four countries of the United Kingdom and it was formed as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. These were Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East, elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won
16.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd (UK Parliament constituency)
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Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The seat was created by the Welsh Boundary Commission for the 2010 general election, Dwyfor Meirionnydd is bordered to the north by Arfon and Aberconwy. The same boundaries were used for the Dwyfor Meirionnydd Welsh Assembly constituency in the 2007 Welsh Assembly election and this is the safest of Plaid Cymrus three seats, with their candidate in 2015 achieving a majority of 18. 2%. The electoral wards used to create the new Dwyfor Meirionnydd seat are as follows and they are entirely within the preserved county of Gwynedd. Dwyfor Meirionnydd List of Parliamentary constituencies in Gwynedd
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National Assembly for Wales
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The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, the Assembly was created by the Government of Wales Act 1998, which followed a referendum in 1997. The Assembly had no powers to initiate primary legislation until limited law-making powers were gained through the Government of Wales Act 2006, the council had 27 members nominated by local authorities in Wales, the University of Wales, National Eisteddfod Council and the Welsh Tourist Board. A post of Minister of Welsh Affairs was created in 1951 and the post of Secretary of State for Wales, the establishment of the Welsh Office effectively created the basis for the territorial governance of Wales. The Royal Commission on the Constitution was set up in 1969 by Harold Wilsons Labour Government to investigate the possibility of devolution for Scotland and Wales. Its recommendations formed the basis of the 1974 White Paper Democracy and Devolution, proposals for Scotland and Wales, however, voters rejected the proposals by a majority of four to one in a referendum held in 1979. After the 1997 general election, the new Labour Government argued that an Assembly would be more accountable than the Welsh Office. For eleven years prior to 1997 Wales had been represented in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom by a Secretary of State who did not represent a Welsh constituency at Westminster. A second referendum was held on 18 September 1997 in which approved the creation of the National Assembly for Wales by a majority of 559,419 votes. The following year the Government of Wales Act was passed by the United Kingdom parliament, the Richard Commission reported in March 2004. It recommended that the National Assembly should have powers to legislate in certain areas and it also recommended changing the electoral system to the single transferable vote which would produce greater proportionality. In so doing, the Government rejected many of the cross party Richard Commissions recommendations and this has attracted criticism from opposition parties and others. The Government of Wales Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 25 July 2006 and it conferred on the Assembly legislative powers similar to other devolved legislatures through the ability to pass Assembly Measures concerning matters that are devolved. Requests for further legislative powers made through legislative competence requests were subject to the veto of the Secretary of State for Wales, the Act reformed the assembly to a parliamentary-type structure, establishing the Welsh Government as an entity separate from, but accountable to the National Assembly. It enables the Assembly to legislate within its devolved fields, the Act also reforms the Assemblys electoral system. It prevents individuals from standing as candidates in both constituency and regional seats and this aspect of the act was subject to a great deal of criticism, most notably from the Electoral Commission. Plaid Cymru, the Official Opposition in the National Assembly from 1999–2007, many commentators have also criticised the Labour Partys allegedly partisan attempt to alter the electoral system. By preventing regional Assembly Members from standing in constituency seats the party has accused of changing the rules to protect constituency representatives
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Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Assembly constituency)
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Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales, created for the 2007 Assembly election. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election, caernarfon is a Gwynedd constituency, entirely within the preserved county of Gwynedd, and one of nine constituencies in the North Wales region. Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a Gwynedd constituency, one of three constituencies entirely within the county of Gwynedd, and one of eight constituencies in the Mid. The other Gwynedd constituencies, however, Arfon and Ynys Môn, are within the North Wales electoral region, in general elections for the National Assembly for Wales, each voter has two votes. The first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Assembly Member for the voters constituency, the second vote may be used to vote for a regional closed party list of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the dHondt method, the seat has been represented since its creation in 2007 by Dafydd Elis-Thomas of Plaid Cymru, the Assemblys former Presiding Officer. He previously represented the constituency of Meirionnydd Nant Conwy from 1999 to 2007
19.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
20.
Merionethshire
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Merionethshire or Merioneth is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, a vice county and a former administrative county. The spelling of the Welsh name in modern orthography is Meirionnydd or Sir Feirionnydd, with a double <nn>. Merionethshire is a county, bounded to the north by Caernarfonshire, to the east by Denbighshire, to the south by Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire. With a total area of 1,731 km², it is one of the sparsely populated counties in Great Britain. The Merioneth area remains one of the strongest Welsh-speaking parts of Wales, the coastline consists alternately of cliffs and stretches of sand and the area generally is the most mountainous in Wales, a large part of the Snowdonia National Park lies within it. The greatest heights are Aran Fawddwy 905 m and Cadair Idris 893 m, the chief rivers are the Dwyryd, the Mawddach and the Dyfi. Waterfalls and small lakes are numerous, the largest being Bala Lake, an administrative county of Merioneth was created under the Local Government Act 1888 on 1 April 1889. The first election to the new authority was held in January 1889, the county was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974. The bulk formed the Meirionnydd district of Gwynedd, with an area in the north east, Edeirnion Rural District. The latter area was, however, renamed Gwynedd almost immediately, the main towns are Dolgellau Aberdyfi Bala Barmouth Blaenau Ffestiniog Corwen Ffestiniog Harlech Tywyn The main industries today are agriculture, forestry and tourism
21.
Llan Ffestiniog
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Llan Ffestiniog, also known as Ffestiniog or simply Llan, is a village in Gwynedd, north Wales, lying south of Blaenau Ffestiniog. It is also home to Mared Parry, a local superstar Attractions near the village include the Rhaeadr Cynfal waterfalls, a decommissioned nuclear power station lies south of the village, at Trawsfynydd. Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian era writer whose novels and short stories were a critique of the inequality in industrial cities. Mr and Mrs Gaskell visited the village and spent some time there on their wedding tour, on another later visit in 1844 it was at the inn there that their young son William caught scarlet fever, from which he died. It was to turn her thoughts from the grief of her bereavement that she upon her husbands advice began to write her first novel, george Borrow wrote briefly about Ffestiniog and its church-side pub, the Pengwern, in his travelogue Wild Wales. He says, Situated in the square opposite the Pengwern Arms, is the oldest dwelling and established business in the area, Meirion House and its name is derived from the county of Meirionydd, and the core of the building is thought to date back to 1411. Several annexes were added on over the years, with an established in 1726. There is a headstone inlaid in the floor, part of which is under the second stairway. Part of Meirion House was once a small bank, known as Banc yr Ddafad Ddu. In the early 19th century, it was a drapers shop, in the early 20th century, it became a guest house with the original visitors book dating back to 1909. It was used extensively by cyclists and was at one time the official quarters of the National Cyclists Union, in the visitors book there is an entry referencing the ghost of Elizabeth. The house was owned by Thomas John Wynn, 5th Baron Newborough until 1925, during World War II, officials from the National Gallery stayed there, whilst working at the Cwt y Bugail quarry, which was used to house the nations art galleries treasures. The houses next door were built on the site of Abbey Arms, an old coaching inn, Ffestiniog railway station opened on 29 May 1868. It was closed to services on 2 January 1960. Festiniog and Blaenau Railway Ffestiniog Landscape photographs in and around Blaenau Ffestiniog www. geograph. co. uk, photos of Llan Ffestiniog and surrounding area
22.
Bangor, Gwynedd
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Bangor is a city in Gwynedd unitary authority, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest city in Wales, historically in Caernarfonshire, it is a university city with a population of 18,808 at the 2011 census, including around 10,500 students at Bangor University and including Pentir community. It is one of six places classed as a city in Wales. According to the 2001 census,46. 6% of the non-student resident population speak Welsh, which is low for Gwynedd but despite this, the language keeps a high profile in the city. The origins of the city back to the founding of a monastic establishment on the site of Bangor Cathedral by the Celtic saint Deiniol in the early 6th century AD. Bangor itself is an old Welsh word for a wattled enclosure, the present cathedral is a somewhat more recent building and has been extensively modified throughout the centuries. While the building itself is not the oldest, and certainly not the biggest, another claim to fame is that Bangor allegedly has the longest High Street in Wales and the United Kingdom. Friars School was founded as a grammar school in 1557. In 1877, the former HMS Clio became a ship, moored on the Menai Strait at Bangor. Closed after the end of hostilities of World War I, she was sold for scrap, during World War II, parts of the BBC evacuated to Bangor during the worst of the Blitz. Bangor lies on the coast of North Wales near the Menai Strait which separates the island of Anglesey from Gwynedd unitary authority, the combined population of the two amounts to 22,184 people. Bangor Mountain lies to the east of the part of the city. Bangor Mountain casts a shadow across the High Street, Glan Adda and Hirael areas, another ridge rises to the north of the High Street, dividing the city centre from the south shore of the Menai Strait, this area is known as Upper Bangor. Bangor has two rivers within its boundaries, Port Penrhyn was an important port in the 19th century, exporting the slates produced at the Penrhyn Quarry. Bangor lies at the end of the North Wales Path. It is also on routes 5,8 and 85 of the National Cycle Network, Bangor railway station, which serves the city, is located on the North Wales Coast Line from Crewe and Chester to Holyhead. The A55 runs immediately to the south of Bangor, providing transport to Holyhead in the west. The nearest airport with international flights is Liverpool John Lennon Airport,83 miles away by road, classical music is performed regularly in Bangor, with concerts given in the Powis and Prichard-Jones Halls as part of the universitys Music at Bangor concert series
23.
Caernarfon
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Caernarfon is a royal town, community, and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,615. It lies along the A487 road, on the shore of the Menai Strait. The city of Bangor is 8.6 miles to the north-east, Carnarvon and Caernarvon are Anglicised spellings that were superseded in 1926 and 1974, respectively. The villages of Bontnewydd and Caeathro are close by, abundant natural resources in and around the Menai Straits enabled human habitation in prehistoric Britain. The Ordovices, a Celtic tribe, lived in the region during the known as Roman Britain. The Roman fort Segontium was established around AD80 to subjugate the Ordovices during the Roman conquest of Britain, the Romans occupied the region until the end of Roman rule in Britain in 382, after which Caernarfon became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. In the late 11th century, William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle at Caernarfon as part of the Norman invasion of Wales. He was unsuccessful, and Wales remained independent until around 1283, in the 13th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, ruler of Gwynedd, refused to pay homage to Edward I of England, prompting the English conquest of Gwynedd. This was followed by the construction of Caernarfon Castle, one of the largest and most imposing fortifications built by the English in Wales. The ascent of the House of Tudor to the throne of England eased hostilities between the English and resulted in Caernarfon Castle falling into a state of disrepair. The city has flourished, leading to its status as a major tourist centre and seat of Gwynedd Council, with a thriving harbour, Caernarfon has expanded beyond its medieval walls and experienced heavy suburbanisation. Its population includes the largest percentage of Welsh-speaking citizens anywhere in Wales, the status of Royal Borough was granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1963 and amended to Royal Town in 1974. The castle and town walls are part of a World Heritage Site described as the Castles, the present city of Caernarfon grew up around and owes its name to its Norman and Edwardian fortifications. The earlier British and Romano-British settlement at Segontium was named for the nearby Afon Seiont, the work states that the inscribed tomb of Constantius the Emperor was still present in the 9th century. The medieval romance about Maximus and Elen, Macsens Dream, calls her home Caer Aber Sein, the Norman motte was erected apart from the existing settlement and came to be known as y gaer yn Arfon, the fortress in Arfon. A1221 charter by Llywelyn the Great to the canons of Penmon priory on Anglesey mentions Kaerinarfon, in 1283, King Edward I completed his conquest of Wales which he secured by a chain of castles and walled towns. The construction of a new stone Caernarfon Castle seems to have started as soon as the campaign had finished, edwards architect, James of St. George, may well have modelled the castle on the walls of Constantinople, possibly being aware of the towns legendary associations. Edwards fourth son, Edward of Caernarfon, later Edward II of England, was born at the castle in April 1284, Caernarfon was constituted a borough in 1284 by charter of Edward I
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North Wales
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North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. Retail, transport and educational infrastructure are centred on Wrexham, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno and Bangor. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales, the southern boundary is arbitrary and its definition may depend on the use being made of the term. For example, the boundary of North Wales Police differs from the boundary of the North Wales area of the Natural Resources Wales, montgomeryshire is sometimes referred to as being in north Wales. The region is steeped in history and was for almost a millennium known as the Kingdom of Gwynedd, the mountainous stronghold of Snowdonia formed the nucleus of that realm and would become the last redoubt of independent Wales — only overcome in 1283. To this day it remains a stronghold of the Welsh language, the area is home to two of the three UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Wales. These are Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and canal and, collectively, the Edwardian castles and town walls of the region which comprise those at Caernarfon, Beaumaris, Conwy and Harlech. It also shares with Powys and Ceredigion the distinction of hosting the only UNESCO Biosphere reserve in Wales, namely, the area is mostly rural with many mountains and valleys. This, in combination with its coast, has ensured that tourism is the principal industry, farming, which was once the principal economic force in the area, is now much reduced in importance. The average income per capita of the population is the lowest in the UK. The eastern part of North Wales contains the most populous areas, with more than 300,000 people living in the areas around Wrexham, Wrexham is North Wales largest town, with a population of 63,084 in 2001. The total population of North Wales is 687,937, the majority of other settlements are along the coast, including some popular resort towns, such as Rhyl, Llandudno and Pwllheli. The A55 road links these towns to cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, the highest mountain in Wales, Snowdon, is situated in north west Wales. North Wales has a diverse and complex geology with Precambrian schists along the Menai Strait. To the east, around Llangollen, to the north on Halkyn Mountain, added to all this are the complexities posed by Parys Mountain and the outcrops of unusual minerals such as Jasper and Mona Marble which make the area of special interest to geologists. North Wales has a regional identity. Colloquially, a person from North Wales is known as a North Walian, areas close to the border with Cheshire can have Scouse accents of English, and along the coast Manchester accents are common. Two daily newspapers are published in the region, a weekly Welsh-language newspaper, Y Cymro is published each week by the Cambrian News from its Porthmadog office alongside two localised Welsh titles, Y Cyfnod and Y Dydd
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Wrexham
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Wrexham is the largest town in north Wales and an administrative, commercial, retail and educational centre. Wrexham is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley alongside the border with England, historically part of Denbighshire, the town became part of Clwyd in 1974 and since 1996 has been the centre of the Wrexham County Borough. At the 2011 Census, Wrexham had a population of 61,603, human activity in the Wrexham area dates back to the Mesolithic period. By the early Middle Bronze Age the area had developed into a centre for an innovative metalworking industry, a Roman civilian settlement was located in the Plas Coch area of Wrexham and excavations have revealed evidence of agriculture and trade with the wider Roman world. By the end of the 6th century AD, the area was being contested between the Celtic-speaking inhabitants and the English-speaking invaders advancing from the east, the origins of the name Wrexham may possibly be traced back to this period. Renewed Welsh and Viking attacks led to a reduction in Anglo-Saxon power in north Wales from the early 10th century, following the Welsh reconquest of the area during the 11th century, Wrexham formed part of the native Welsh lordship of Maelor. During the 12th century the lordship was disputed between the Welsh and the English. The first recorded reference to the town in 1161 is to a Norman motte and bailey castle at Wristlesham which was founded in the Erddig area around 1150 by Hugh de Avranches. However, by the early 13th century Wrexham was undisputedly in the hands of the Welsh house of Powys Fadog, stability under the princes of Powys enabled Wrexham to develop as a trading town and administrative centre of one of the two commotes making up the Lordship. Following the loss of Welsh independence on the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, Wrexham became part of the semi-independent Marcher lordship of Bromfield and Yale. From 1327 onwards, the town is referred to as a villa mercatoria and by 1391 Wrexham was wealthy enough for a bard, jester, juggler, dancer and goldsmith to earn their living there. At the beginning of the 15th century, the local gentry, local poet Glyn Gutor Glyn wrote of Sion ap Madog, the great-nephew of Owain Glyndŵr, as Alecsander i Wrecsam. In the mid 15th century, the church was gutted by fire. The main part of the current church was built in the late 15th, the Acts of Union passed during the reign of Henry VIII brought the lordship into the full system of English administration and law. It became part of the new shire of Denbighshire in 1536, the economic character remained predominantly agricultural into the 17th century but there were workshops of weavers, smiths, nailers as well as dye houses. A grammar school was established in 1603 by Alderman Valentine Broughton of Chester, during the English Civil War, Wrexham was on the side of the Royalists, as most Welsh gentry supported the King, but local landowner Sir Thomas Myddelton, owner of Chirk Castle, supported Parliament. The Industrial Revolution began in Wrexham in 1762 when the entrepreneur John Wilkinson, known as Iron Mad Wilkinson, wilkinsons steam engines enabled a peak of production at Minera Lead Mines on the outskirts of Wrexham. Wrexham was also known for its industry, by the 18th century there were a number of skinners and tanners in the town
26.
Ffestiniog Railway
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The Ffestiniog Railway is a 1 ft 11 1⁄2 in narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park, the railway is roughly 13 1⁄2 miles long and runs from the harbour at Porthmadog to the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, travelling through forested and mountainous scenery. The line is single throughout with four intermediate passing places. The first mile of the out of Porthmadog runs atop an embankment locally called the Cob. The Festiniog Railway Company which owns the railway is the oldest surviving company in the world. It also owns the Welsh Highland Railway which was re-opened fully in 2011, the two railways share the same track gauge and meet at Porthmadog station, with some trains working the entire 40 mile route from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon. The railway company is known as the Festiniog Railway Company as this otherwise obsolete spelling is in the official title of the company in the Act that created the railway. Most British railways were amalgamated into four groups in 1921 and then into British Railways in 1948 but the Festiniog Railway Company, like most narrow-gauge railways. In 1921, this was due to influence, whereas in 1947 it was left out of British Railways because it was closed for traffic. Various important developments in the Railways early history were celebrated by the firing of cannon at various points along the line. Cannon were fired, for instance, to mark the laying of the first stone at Creuau in 1833, the opening in 1836. The passing of a later Act for the railway also saw cannon celebrations, but on occasion a fitter at Boston Lodge. The line was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport slate from the quarries around the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog to the coastal town of Porthmadog where it was loaded onto ships. The railway was graded so that wagons could be run by gravity downhill all the way from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the port. The empty wagons were hauled back up by horses, which travelled down in special dandy wagons, to achieve this continuous grade, the line followed natural contours and employed cuttings and embankments built of stone and slate blocks without mortar. It shows departures from the Quarry Terminus at 7,30,9,28,11,16,1,14,3,12 and 5,10, trains waited ten minutes at the intermediate stations called Tunnel Halt, Hafod y Llyn and Rhiw Goch. The fastest journey time from Quarry Terminus to Boston Lodge was 1 hour 32 minutes, from Boston Lodge, the slate wagons were hauled to and from Porthmadog harbour by horses. Up trains took six hours from Boston Lodge to the Quarry Terminus and each train ran in up to four sections, each hauled by a horse
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Llechwedd Slate Caverns
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Llechwedd Slate Caverns is a visitor attraction near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales. It details the history of quarrying in the town and specifically the Llechwedd quarry in which it is located. The attraction also incorporates Mountain biking tracks, Zip-lines and giant underground trampolines, the 2 ft narrow gauge Miners Tramway, opened in 1972 under the name Quarry Tours, was a railway travelling 800 metres underground. The trains were hauled by locomotives and travelled through tunnels. The tramways closure in 2014, as part of a revamp of the caverns, the Deep Mine, opened in 1979, is accessed by the 3 ft narrow gauge Deep Mine Railway, a steep passenger funicular with a gradient of 1,1.8 or 30°. At the foot of the funicular, visitors can walk through several tunnels, the Deep Mine Railway is the steepest passenger railway in the UK. As part of the 2014 developments a new guided Victorian Mine Tour opened combining the funicular, in 2015 the Zip World Caverns wire course opened within the caves. Llechwedd Slate Caverns have been listed as one of the top ten places to visit by North Wales Tourism and it is also claimed to be winner of every major tourism award. Slate industry in Wales British narrow gauge slate railways Official Web site Llechwedd Slate Caverns at Wales Underground
28.
Cilgwyn quarry
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Cilgwyn quarry is a slate quarry located on the north edge of the Nantlle Vale, in North Wales. It is one of the earliest slate quarries in Great Britain, king Edward I of England was reputed to have stayed in a house roofed by Cilgwyn slates, during the Welsh wars of independence. Quarrying at Cilgwyn dates back to the 12th century, by the end of the 18th century a large number of small pits had grown into a substantial working. The Cilgwyn Quarry Company was formed in 1800 by the Caernarfon solicitor John Evans, by the 1820s it had been taken over by the Cilgwyn and Cefn Du Slate Company, though this company collapsed in 1831. Quarrying later resumed at Cilgwyn but it failed again between 1843 and 1844, closing with debts of around £20,000, Cilgwyn was operating again by the 1850s and developed four main pits. In 1882,7,430 tons of finished slate were produced, between 1864 and 1895 between 200 and 304 workers were employed at Cilgwyn, this had dropped to 51 to 102 between 1918 and 1937. Quarrying continued at Cilgwyn until 1956, in the early 2000s, the quarry was used as a waste dump by the local council, but landfill activity ceased in January 2009. Cilgwyn was an opencast quarry comprising three main pits, Gloddfa Glitiau to the north-east, Old Cilgwyn to the west and Veingoch to the south-east, earlier in its history there were a larger number of smaller pits. The mills stood on top of significant waste tips to the south, a tramway north ran from the mills to another waste tipping site to the north of the quarry at Bryn Byfryd Terrace. Cilgwyn quarry was connected to the 3 ft 6 in gauge Nantlle Railway by a pair of inclines that dropped from the Cilgwyn mill level through Glantyfedw quarry to a junction at Talysarn Uchaf, internally the quarry had an extensive network of 2 ft gauge tramways. These served the three main pits and the waste tips, a mile-long tramway ran from the mills round a horseshoe curve to a waste tip on the north side of Mynydd y Cilgwyn. In 1923 a connection was made from this tramway to the line connecting Fron quarry to Bryngywn and this allowed slates to be dispatched from Cilgwyn onto the Welsh Highland Railway, avoiding the need to transship slates from the internal quarry wagons into the Nantlle Railways wagons. The quarry used at least three steam locomotives internally from 1876, Queenie a Bagnall, Lilla a large quarry Hunslet, the steam locomotives were replaced with a number of diesels
29.
Diphwys Casson Quarry
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Diphwys Casson Quarry was a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was one of the users of the Ffestiniog Railway. To the north east of the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog is the valley of Cenunant y Diphwys, in the 1760s men led by Methusalem Jones, from the long established Cilgwyn quarry near Nantlle started quarrying in this area, which was known for its slate beds. The exact location of this quarry has been obliterated by subsequent mining activity. In 1800 quarry managers William Turner and William Casson, from the Lake District took the lease on the quarry, by 1820, underground mining had started. The quarry was successful in the period 1820–1880, but it ran into difficulties, working restarted in 1920, but this lasted only seven years before the quarry was again abandoned. Diphwys Casson closed in 1955 after almost two centuries of operation, in 1864 the Diffwys Incline was laid, connecting the quarry with the Ffestiniog Railways Duffws terminus in Blaenau Ffestiniog. This incline was used by the Votty & Bowydd Quarry
30.
Lake District
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The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests and mountains and its associations with the early 19th century writings of William Wordsworth and the other Lake Poets. It is located in the county of Cumbria, and all the land in England higher than 3,000 feet above sea level lies within the National Park, including Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. It also contains the deepest and longest bodies of water in England, respectively Wast Water, the Lake District National Park includes nearly all of the Lake District, though the town of Kendal and the Lakeland Peninsulas are currently outside the park boundary. Its aim is to protect the landscape by restricting unwelcome change by industry or commerce, Most of the land in the park is in private ownership, with about 55% registered as agricultural land. Landowners include, Individual farmers and other landowners, with more than half of the agricultural land farmed by the owners. The National Trust owns about a quarter of the total area, the Forestry Commission and other investors in forests and woodland. United Utilities owns 8% Lake District National Park Authority The National Park Authority is based at offices in Kendal and it runs a visitor centre on Windermere at a former country house called Brockhole, Coniston Boating Centre, and Information Centres. Much of the land has statutory open access rights, which cover around 50% of the park. The lakes and mountains combine to form impressive scenery, farmland and settlement have altered the natural scenery, and the ecology has been modified by human influence for millennia and includes important wildlife habitats. However, in 2016 the English Lake District bid for World Heritage Status was submitted to UNESCO in the category of cultural landscape, a decision is expected in 2017. In December 2009, Natural England proposed extending the National Park in the direction of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and this would include land of high landscape value in the Lune Valley. The proposal was opposed by Cumbria County Council who said it would lead to less democratic control, a public inquiry was held into the proposals, which required a decision by the Secretary of State. The decision to recommend approval was announced on October 23,2015, the precise extent of the Lake District was not defined traditionally, but is slightly larger than that of the National Park, the total area of which is about 912 square miles. The park extends just over 32 miles from east to west, the Lake District is one of the most highly populated national parks. There are, however, only a handful of settlements within this mountainous area, the towns of Keswick, Windermere, Ambleside. Villages such as Coniston, Threlkeld, Glenridding, Pooley Bridge, Broughton-in-Furness, Grasmere, Newby Bridge, Staveley, Lindale, Gosforth, the economies of almost all are intimately linked with tourism. Beyond these are a scattering of hamlets and many isolated farmsteads, some of which are tied to agriculture
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Oakeley Quarry
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Oakeley Quarry is a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was the largest underground mine in the world, and had 26 floors spanning a vertical height of nearly 1500 ft. The first slate quarry on the site of what was to become Oakeley Quarry, was begun in 1818 when Samuel Holland, the landlords, the Oakeley family of Tan y Bwlch took a 10% royalty for the three-year lease. In 1821, at the end of the three years, Holland took a further 21-year lease on the site, but he sold this in 1825 to the Welsh Slate Company which considerably extended the quarry. The Welsh Slate Co. s undertaking was the lowest on the mountain it became known as Lower Quarry - also known as Lord Palmerstons Quarry, Holland opened a new quarry above Lower Quarry at Cesail. In 1827, Holland gave over control of company to his son. This quarry was known as Hollands Quarry, Gloddfar Gesail. In 1839 Hollands Upper Quarry became one of the first to send slate on the newly opened Ffestiniog Railway, in 1842 as the original 21-year lease expired, Holland and the Welsh Slate Company negotiated a new lease from the Oakeley family. The new lease was granted provided some land was given up by both enterprises to allow a third quarry to be opened and this was Middle Quarry also known as Gloddfa Ganol and was operated by the Rhiwbryfdir Slate Company. The younger Holland was known as an employer, although in the early years he frequently had trouble with the workforce. But he managed to avoid the significant industrial action that was interrupting production at other Welsh slate quarries in this period, by 1840 the slate that could be easily accessed by surface quarrying with contemporary methods was exhausted, so the quarries began underground mining. Complex arrangements were written into the leases to ensure that the workings did not conflict. Production at all three continued to expand and during the early 1870s the production and profits hit their peaks. The leaseholds for the Upper and Middle quarries expired in 1878, Oakeley refused to renew them, instead consolidating the two quarries into a single operation, the Oakeley Quarry. The Welsh Slate Company had negotiated a lease extension some years before expiry, problems caused by the complex but separate workings had arisen as early as the 1860s. But the Middle Quarry was mining more slowly than the Welsh Slate Company desired and this literally undermined the Middle Quarry workings and during the 1870s underground rockfalls became an increasing concern. On 6 December 1882 a major rockfall forced the Welsh Slate Company to shut down all operations, the instability in the mine continued, culminating in a much larger fall on 16 February 1883. This Great Fall saw 6.25 million tons of rock fall in a single event, as well as the physical damage to the quarries, the fall triggered a lawsuit between the Oakeley Company and the Welsh Slate Company which the Welsh Slate Company lost
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Llechwedd quarry
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Llechwedd quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. At its peak in 1884 it produced 23,788 tons of finished slate per year and had 513 employees and it continues to produce slate on a limited scale and is the location of the Llechwedd Slate Caverns tourist attraction. As early as 1831, permission was sought to begin quarrying near Llechwedd Farm, the Llechwedd slate quarry was opened in 1846 by John Whitehead Greaves, a successful quarry owner. Greaves had a history with the quarries at Blaenau Ffestiniog. When the Ffestiniog Railway was opened in 1836, connecting Blaenau Ffestiniog with the sea at Porthmadog, in 1843 Greaves was elected the treasurer of the Ffestiniog Railway and in 1844 he became its chairman. This began an association between the railway and the Greaves family. By this time Greaves was running the Diffwys and Bowydd quarries under leases from their landowners, in 1846 Greaves and his partner Edwin Shelton leased pasture land nearby at Llechwedd and began prospecting for slate. They gave up their rent of Bowydd at this time, by 1847 miners located the Old Vein at Llechwedd and development of the quarry began under the management of Johns son John Ernest Greaves. An incline was built to connect the quarry with the Ffestiniog Railway which was extended from its terminus at Dinas to meet the incline and this work was completed on 30 June 1848. In 18512,900 tons of finished slate was produced by Llechwedd and shipped over the FfR and the company moved its offices to Porthmadog, the terminus of the railway. There a slate wharf dedicated to Llechwedd was built in 1853 where the products were trans-shipped to a fleet of sailing boats for transport to their markets. The quarry continued to production in the 1850s and 1860s. In 1890 Llechwedd began to introduce electrical power, becoming the first quarry in the Ffestiniog area to do so, because of the high rainfall in Blaenau Ffestiniog the quarry used its own hydro-electric generating station to provide this power. In 1909 Richard Greaves, the son of John Ernest, became chairman of the Ffestiniog Railway, in 1932 a Blondin aerial ropeway was installed at Llechwedd and three years later a major new mill was built. Work at the quarry continued during World War II with production increasing temporarily after the conflict, in 1957, Llechwedd started shipping out finished slates by lorry to the wharves at the LMS station at Blaenau Ffestiniog, though this practice only lasted until 1962. The 1960s saw a fall in the demand for slate. Llechwedd turned their attention to other sources of revenue. The same year the owners purchased Diphwys Casson Quarry to the south
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Maenofferen Quarry
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Maenofferen Quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales and one of the major users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It continues to produce crushed slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry, Maenofferen was first worked for slate by men from the nearby Diphwys quarry shortly after 1800. By 1848 slate was being shipped via the Ffestiniog Railway, in 1857 traffic resumed briefly and apart from a gap in 1865, a steady flow of slate was dispatched via the railway. The initial quarry on the site was known as the David Jones quarry which was the highest and most easterly of what became the extensive Maenofferen complex, in 1861 the Maenofferen Slate Quarry Co. Ltd. was incorporated, producing around 400 tons of slate that year. The company leased a wharf at Porthmadog in 1862 and shipped 181 tons of finished slate over the Ffestiniog Railway the following year, during the nineteenth century the quarry flourished and expanded, extending its workings underground and further downhill towards Blaenau Ffestiniog. By 1897 it employed 429 people with almost half of working underground. The Ffestiniog Railway remained the major transport outlet for its products. Instead slate was sent via the Rhiwbach Tramway which ran through the quarry and this incurred extra shipping costs that rival quarries did not have to bear. In 1908 the company leased wharf space at Minffordd, installing turntables, in 1928 Maenofferen purchased the Rhiwbach Quarry, continuing to work it and use its associated Tramway until 1953. Slate trains continued to run over this section until 1962, Maenofferen then becoming the last slate quarry to use any part of the Ffestiniog Railways route. From 1962 slate was shipped from the quarry by road, although the internal quarry tramways including stretches of the Rhiwbach tramway continued in use until at least the 1980s. The quarry was purchased by the nearby Llechwedd quarry in 1975 together with Bowydd, which incorporated the old Votty workings. Underground production at Maenofferen ceased during November 1999 and with it the end of large-scale underground working for slate in north Wales, production of slate recommenced on the combined Maenofferen site, consisting of untopping underground workings to recover slate from the supporting pillars of the chambers. Material recovered from the quarry tips will also be recovered for crushing, aditNow - Photographic database of Maenofferen Slate Mine Rhiwbach Tramway - Photo journal of a trip into the quarry in 2007
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Votty & Bowydd Quarry
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Votty & Bowydd Quarry is a major slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was one of the users of the Ffestiniog Railway. It continues to produce crushed slate on a limited scale under the ownership of the nearby Llechwedd quarry, to the north east of the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog is the valley of Cenunant y Diphwys. In the 1760s men from the long established Cilgwyn quarry near Nantlle started quarrying in this area, Votty & Bowydd was formed in 1870 when the neighbouring Votty and Bowydd quarries were merged. By 1882, it was producing nearly 12,100 tons of slate and its peak output at the end of the nineteenth century was over 17,000 tons annually and employing 500 men. In 1899, Votty & Bowydd became the first quarry in North Wales to undertake a significant electrification scheme, after the First World War, the slate industry declined. Votty & Bowydd was acquired in 1933 by the owners of Oakeley Quarry and it continued to be worked until 1962, when it was closed down, and the company was liquidated in 1964. The workings were sold to the owners of the adjacent Maenofferen Quarry, in recent years, Llechwedd has been untopping the Votty & Bowydd underground chambers. Votty Quarry, which operated from 1830, never had any rail access. In 1854 a direct connection was made by incline from Bowydd to the Festiniog Railway, by 1880 most slate was going out by a connection made part-way down the Diffwys incline. The following locomotives are known to have worked at Votty & Bowydd
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Cwmorthin Quarry
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Cwmorthin Quarry is a slate quarry west of the village of Tanygrisiau, north Wales. Quarrying on the site started in 1810, in 1860 it was connected to the Ffestiniog Railway. In 1900 it was acquired by the nearby Oakeley Quarry and the two were connected underground, in 1970 it closed along with Oakeley. There was small scale working in the 1980s and 1990s, the mine closed in 1997. Slate extraction began at Cwmorthin in 1810, when a quarry was opened on the site by the Casson family who were also working the Diphwys Casson Quarry. This early quarrying lasted for twenty years, but had ceased by 1830. In 1840, working again, when John Edwards and his partner Magnes obtained a lease. Chorleys involvement with the quarry continued until about 1860 and he employed Allen Searell as an Agent for the quarry in 1844, and correspondence between the two men is held by the library at Bangor University, formerly the University of North Wales. In the late 1850s, Chorley began to lose interest in the enterprise, from about 1859, the quarry appears to have been worked by a group of men under an informal arrangement. They leased a wharf at Porthmadog harbour in 1860, until the Cwmorthin Slate Company was formed in January 1861 and this had an authorised capital of £100,000, and the company bought the Cwmorthin Isaf estate and part of Tanygrisiau village on 25 July 1861. At some point, the 1 ft 11 1⁄2 in Cwmorthin Tramway was constructed to connect the quarry with the nearby Ffestiniog Railway at Tanygrisiau. Isherwood states that it was soon after the new company took over in 1861 but Boyd suggests that a survey was carried out in the mid-1840s, and that it was completed in 1850. It was mentioned in the 1850 edition of Cliffes The Book of North Wales, an existing siding at Tanygrisiau, which had served horse-drawn wagons from the quarry, was removed shortly afterwards. The first dressing mill, where the blocks of slate were split and dressed to form roofing slates, was situated on the shore of Llyn Cwmorthin. A second mill, the Cross Mill, was built a little further down the valley, as a result of water from Llyn Cwmorthin could be used to feed a water wheel. Two rope-worked inclined planes allowed the tramway to negotiate the difference in level between the mill and the Ffestiniog Railway. The connection of the incline to the railway was deemed to be dangerous by a Board of Trade inspector in 1864. As a result, the Ffestiniog Railway had to install distant signals, trains were not allowed to run along the main line while the incline was in use
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Wrysgan Quarry
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Wrysgan Quarry was a slate quarry near the village of Tanygrisiau, north Wales. Wrysgan sits high on the flank of Moel-yr-hydd, to the south of Cwm Orthin and it was separated from Cwm Ystradau by a sharp ridge, through which the quarry bored an inclined tunnel in order to connect to the Festiniog Railway. On the north side of the tunnel a tramway led to the mill and stacking area, to the south of the mill an incline led up to the main floor 3 adit which led west into the chambers underneath Moel-yr-hydd. Further adits lay to the south, accessing other levels, Wrysgan Quarry was an underground slate quarry, which was located on a small inaccessible site, some 1,390 feet above sea level, to the west of Cwm Orthin. Extraction began in the 1830s, and finished slates were carried down a steep, like many small quarries in the area, details are often obscure and complex, and there is little evidence of continuous working. Initially, land was leased from the Cwm Orthin and Ormesby-Gore estates, william Roberts of Coed-y-Bleddiau opened it and then sold it, but the new owner lost money, and the venture failed. Methusalem Jones from Llandegai, Caernarvon tried to reopen it, but again lost a lot of money, after some years of closure, a new group bought it in 1844, but were bankrupted by the high cost of the incline which they started to build. Around 1850, a new company, the Wrysgan Slate and Slab Quarries Co Ltd was incorporated, boyd suggests that this was the incline that connects to the Ffestiniog Railway, and was built at a cost of £5,000. Richards suggests that it was down into Cwm Orthin, and that it was an incline, with a pack horse track running from the bottom. A mill for the processing of the rock was constructed in 1854 and it was equipped with 18 saws,20 dressers and 2 planers. Power to drive the mills was provided by waterwheels, supplied from a reservoir, Llyn y Wrysgan. The reservoir was filled by a leat, but the supply was often inadequate. When the site was auctioned in 1869, its assets were stated to include two water wheels and a steam engine. At some point, an engine was installed to power the lower mill. Steam engines proved to be costly to run, and the company tried to use of the unused Cross Mill at Cwmorthin Quarry. When the negotiations failed, they replaced the engine with a 50 hp producer gas engine. A car engine was used to power this incline. The main incline was also problematical, as the boiler was undersized for the steam engine, the works were electrified in the 1920s, after which a novel solution to the problems of the main incline was introduced
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Cwm Penmachno
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Cwm Penmachno is a former quarry settlement at the head of the Penmachno valley in North Wales. The Rhiwbach slate quarry was linked by the Rhiwbach Tramway to the Ffestiniog railway at Blaenau Ffestiniog. The slopes around the village provide streams which are the source of the river Machno, the village attracts tourist, particularly mountain bikers, kayakers, canoeists and walkers. The Penmachno Mountain Bike Trail is located between Cwm Penmachno and Penmachno, there is a Community Centre and drop-in Heritage Room in the village at the former Shiloh Chapel. Situated near the end of the valley is The Latymer Schools outdoor centre, Ysgol Latymer Outdoor Pursuits Centre and it accommodates six year 7 and six year 9 week-long, residential trips every year as well as various geography and PE trips organised by the school. The Latymer School have bought this centre in Snowdonia National Park so its pupils can get to each other better. Photographs of Cwm Penmachno Slate Quarry
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Rhiwbach Quarry
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Rhiwbach Quarry was a slate quarry located to the east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales, at the far end of the Rhiwbach Tramway, which connected it to the Ffestiniog Railway. Commercial operation began around 1812, and it closed in 1952. It was the last Welsh slate quarry where workers lived in barracks on the site, Rhiwbach translates as Little Hill, and was a remote site nearly 4 miles to the east of Duffws, the eastern terminus of the Ffestiniog Railway in Blaenau Ffestiniog. The land on which it was located was owned by Lord Newborough, more organised working of the site began in 1812, by two men from Penmachno and Yspytty Ifan, which gradually developed into a five-man partnership. The quarry was sold to Robert Owen Mousdale of Bryndyffryn, Llanrwst in 1849, because of its remote location, the quarry faced a dilemma over transport. It lay to the east of the watershed, at the head of the Machno Valley, from there, slates could be loaded into river boats for onward transfer to Conwy, or directly into sea-going vessels. Although it was downhill, it was not ideal, as it involved around 14 miles by cart to Treffriw, and then a further 10 miles on the river. A shorter route to the south was possible, carting the slates to the Afon Dwyryd at Maentwrog, a journey of about 7 miles, however, from the quarry, there was a climb of 250 feet in order to cross the watershed. Consequently, most product used the route to begin with, but from the 1830s. The following year, the Manchester & Ffestiniog Slate & Slab Co Ltd was created and this was followed in 1858 by the incorporation of the Festiniog Slate Quarry Co Ltd, with a capital of £100,000. It consisted of several directors from a similarly named company set up in 1853 to buy out the Penmachno Quarry, a little to the north, the extension, known as the Rhiwbach Tramway, was financed by the quarry, but built by the Ffestiniog Railway. It was largely completed in 1861, as two quarries began using it in early 1862, but it was not fully completed until 1863. In the meantime, Rhiwbach built a wharf at Porthmadog in 1861, and carriage of their slates on the Ffestiniog Railway was first recorded in 1863, the original company was wound up in 1877, and re-constituted as the Festiniog Slate Company Limited. Operation was sporadic until the company was liquidated in 1891, however, work continued at the quarry, under the direction of H Humphries, who traded as Rhiw Bach Quarry Owners. By 1896 there were 95 employees recorded at the site, of which 29 worked underground, Humphries continued to work the quarry until 1913, when his company was wound up and the quarry closed. Some slate was exported via the Ffestiniog Railway in 1918, despite the fact that the quarry was closed. In the following year the Festiniog Slate Quarries Company Limited was incorporated to work the quarry, and in 1928, parts of the tramway were relaid, and they continued to operate the quarry until 1953, when it was closed. The tramway was lifted back to the Cwt y Bugail junction, there are five main veins of Ordovician slate that pass through Blaenau Ffestiniog, which from the top downwards are called the North, Back, Narrow, Main or Old and South or New veins
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Cwt y Bugail Quarry
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The Cwt y Bugail Quarry is a former slate quarry located east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales. It was first worked as a trial pit around 1840, continuous production began in 1863 and continued until closure in 1961. The quarry was connected to the Ffestiniog Railway at Duffws Station via the Rhiwbach Tramway, Cwt y Bugail means Shepherds Hut, and was probably the only notable feature in the vicinity, and hence was used for the name of the quarry. Adam Gregory leased the Blaen y Cwm Quarry above Blaenau Ffestiniog from 1838 to 1849, during this time he made several trial workings at Cwt y Bugail. In 1863 Hugh Beaver Roberts sold half his interest in the Cwt y Bugail land to a consortium who formed the New Cwt y Bugail Slate Company Ltd. to begin production on the site. Around 1877 the quarry was taken over by Owen Williams from the village of Penmachno. He ran Cwt y Bugail for the thirty years and was the great-grandfather of Owen Glyn Williams who managed the quarry in the 1980s. Production of slate peaked in 1877 and began dwindling significantly from 1884 onwards, by 1887 the quarry was closed, but Owen Williams formed a workers cooperative and began working the quarry in 1888. The cooperative purchased the quarry from the Bugail Slate Quarry Co. for a fee in 1892 Modest production with 60 men employed continued until 1898 when another gradual decline set in. In 1908 a rock fall in the quarry caused the company to fall into debt, the receiver sold the quarry to Cadwalader Owen Roberts of Betwys y Coed for a nominal sum. The quarry continued operating under the name the New Welsh Slate Quarry, Cadwalader Pierce took over as manager in 1911 repairing some of the damage from the rock fall. The quarry continued producing until 1912 but after that only already worked slate was dispatched, Roberts reopened Cwt y Bugail in 1919 after the end of the First World War and worked it for three more years, but again the enterprise failed and the quarry closed. In 1923 Tudor Roberts of Glanypwll set up the Cwt y Bugail Slate Quarries Ltd. to purchase and this company owned the quarry until 1961, though from 1946 it was sub-leased to the nearby Maenofferen Quarry to which it was connected by the Rhiwbach Tramway. From 1956 onwards the quarry was sub-leased to Manod Slate Quarries Ltd. which operated the Graig Ddu Quarry to the south. In 1961 the Cwt y Bugail company was taken over by a led by Dafydd Price. Some sporadic slate extraction continued at Cwt y Bugail until 1972, a subsidiary of Ffestiniog Slate Quarry Ltd. purchased the land and mineral rights to Cwt y Bugail in 1985. Ffestiniog Slate Quarries also owned the Oakeley Slate Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the nearby Manod quarry is currently being operated by Welsh Slate, the owners of the Penrhyn Quarry, but it has been renamed Cwt-y-Bugail. Of the five main slate veins that can be found at Blaenau Ffestiniog, blaenaus Back Vein was variously called the Front Vein, Red Vein or Small Vein locally, and its North Vein was called the Back Vein in the quarry
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Blaen y Cwm Quarry
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The Blaen y Cwm Quarry was a slate quarry located east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales. It was first worked in some time between 1813 and 1818 and sporadically after that until 1914, the quarry was connected to the Ffestiniog Railway at Duffws Station via the Rhiwbach Tramway. Blaen y Cwm and the nearby Cwt y Bugail Quarry both sit on land that was owned until the 1860s by the Wynne family of Peniarth, the first indication of quarrying activity on the Blaen y Cwm site is a map from 1818 that shows a modest quarry here. These early workings continued for years on a small scale. In 1838 the quarry was leased for 21 years to Adam Gregory who also held the lease for Cwt y Bugail as well as a number of other Welsh mines and quarries, gregorys operations were not a financial success and in 1849 he surrendered the lease to Blaen y Cwm. In 1853, brothers Thomas and James Swinton Spooner of the Ffestiniog Railway leased Blaen y Cwm and worked it for two years. The Spooner family planned to extend the Ffestiniog Railway to the nearby Rhiwfachno Quarry, with branches to serve the cluster of quarries at Blaen yt Cwm, Cwt y Bugail. Despite a bill being put before Parliament in 1854 this scheme was dropped, in 1861 a new lease for Blaen y Cwm was granted to Hugh Beaver Roberts of Bangor. This lease passed through several hands in a series of dubious transactions before settling with William Henry Gatty of Market Harborough and he began to work the quarry under the title the Blaenycwm Slate Company. Production on a small scale continued through the 1870s, but the quarry. In 1889 the quarry was purchased by E. P, jones the manager of Diffwys Quarry, who worked it that year and in 1890, but again slate extraction ceased from 1891 to 1897. Another attempt to work Blaen y Cwm started in 1898 under the ownership of the new Blaenycwm Slate Quarry Co. Ltd and this lasted until 1903, but was voluntarily wound up. The final attempt to make a success of the began in 1904 with a new company. This worked on a limited scale until 1906, followed by a hiatus until revived in 1910, the quarry finally closed on 8 May 1914. Apart from some surface extraction of rustic slates by a man in the 1960s. Until about 1820 the output of Blaen y Cwm was shipped by packhorse via Cwm Machno, from that date onwards, slate was shipped out, still on packhorse, over the mountain to Ffestiniog and on to Porthmadog. From 1869 the quarry used the Rhiwbach Tramway to connect with the Ffestiniog Railway at Blaenau Ffestiniog, until 1872 the slate was carried by hand or wheelbarrow uphill to the tramway. An incline was constructed in 1872 that allowed a less manually intensive direct connection between the internal tramways and the Rhiwbach Tramway above
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Manod Mawr
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Manod Mawr is a mountain in North Wales and forms part of the Moelwynion. Although known as a mountain in the eastern Moelwyns, it, Manod Mawr is a mountain which has been extensively quarried. The recently closed Graig Ddu Quarry is to be found on the 600-metre contour, Manod Mawrs summit is in the exclusion zone of the Snowdonia National Park around Blaenau Ffestiniog, while Manod Mawr North Tops summit only just misses out on the national parks protection. There were fears the quarry would eventually remove the North Top. www. geograph. co. uk, photos of Manod Mawr and surrounding area
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Maentwrog
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Maentwrog is a village and community in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog just below Blaenau Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. The River Dwyryd runs alongside the village and its population of 585 in 2001 increased to 631 at the 2011 Census. The Community of Maentwrog includes the village of Gellilydan, nearby Plas Tan y Bwlch, substantially rebuilt during the 19th century by the rich Oakeley family on the site of a first house probably built in the early 17th century, overlooks the village. Plas Tan y Bwlch has its own halt - Plas Halt - on the Ffestiniog Railway, the National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland stated that Tan-y-Bwlch was the postal town of Maentwrog. According to legend, a giant known as Twrog hurled a boulder from the top of a hill down into the settlement and this stone is said to be the one located in St Twrogs Church courtyard. It is said if one rubs this boulder one is fated to return to the village in the future. The name was already in existence at some time before this as it is said in Welsh mythology found in the Mabinogion that Pryderi was killed at the Glaslyn river, the boulder supposedly hurled by the giant is also the one said to mark Pryderis grave. The church is dedicated to the memory of Twrog, an eminent British saint, the village settlement expanded in the 19th century to house workers from local slate mines. Within the village community is the imposing Plas Tan y Bwlch, home of the Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, Maentwrog hydro-electric power station was opened in 1928, and still produces electricity today. It is supplied by water from Llyn Trawsfynydd, a large reservoir located near the village of Trawsfynydd. There are two inns, The Grapes, a 17th-century Grade 2 listed coaching inn near the parish church. Edmund Prys, the poet and biblical translator, was born in nearby Llandecwyn, was rector between 1572 and 1624, and is buried inside St Twrogs Church, thomas Love Peacock lived at Maentrwrog in 1810, and subsequently married Jane Gryffydh, daughter of the parson. The British astrologer Russell Grant lives in nearby Tan-y-Bwlch, GENUKI page Plas Tan y Bwlch - Snowdonia National Park Study Centre www. geograph. co. uk, photos of Maentwrog and surrounding area Map sources for Maentwrog
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Slate industry in Wales
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The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is produced as thicker slab for a variety of uses including flooring, worktops. Towards the close of the century, the landowners began to operate the quarries themselves, after the government abolished slate duty in 1831, rapid expansion was propelled by the building of narrow gauge railways to transport the slates to the ports. The slate industry dominated the economy of north-west Wales during the half of the 19th century. In 1898, a force of 17,000 men produced half a million tons of slate. Slate production continues on a reduced scale. The Slate industry in North Wales is on the tentative World Heritage Site list, the slate deposits of Wales belong to three geological series, Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian. The Cambrian deposits run south-west from Conwy to near Criccieth, these deposits were quarried in the Penrhyn and Dinorwig quarries, there are smaller outcrops elsewhere, for example on Anglesey. The Ordovician deposits run south-west from Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog, these were the deposits mined at Blaenau Ffestiniog. There is another band of Ordovician slate further south, running from Llangynnog to Aberdyfi, quarried mainly in the Corris area, with a few outcrops in south-west Wales, the Silurian deposits are mainly further east in the Dee valley and around Machynlleth. The virtues of slate as a building and roofing material have been recognized since the Roman period, the Roman fort at Segontium, Caernarfon, was originally roofed with tiles, but the later levels contain numerous slates, used for both roofing and flooring. The nearest deposits are about five miles away in the Cilgwyn area, during the mediaeval period, there was small-scale quarrying of slate in several areas. The Cilgwyn quarry in the Nantlle Valley dates from the 12th century, Aberllefenni Slate Quarry may have started operating as a slate mine as early as the 14th century. The earliest confirmed date of operating dates from the early 16th century when the local house Plas Aberllefenni was roofed in slates from this quarry, transport problems meant that the slate was usually used fairly close to the quarries. There was some transport by sea, a poem by the 15th century poet Gutor Glyn asks the Dean of Bangor to send him a shipload of slates from Aberogwen, near Bangor, to Rhuddlan to roof a house at Henllan, near Denbigh. The wreck of a ship carrying finished slates was discovered in the Menai Strait and is thought to date from the 16th century. By the second half of the 16th century, there was an export trade of slates to Ireland from ports such as Beaumaris
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