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ABSTRACT
UNESCO’s inscription of ‘The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales’ as a World Heritage Site in 2021 added for the first time a cultural landscape of quarrying to the World Heritage list, the culmination of a 12-year bid process for Gwynedd Council as the promoting local authority. Its six Component Parts exhibit clear visual and functional relationships with the wider landscape of Snowdonia and the sea, but also significant differences in terms of extraction, processing, workers’ settlements and transport. These were described and analysed in a well-produced dossier informed by a comprehensive comparative study, which set out how Wales’ robust systems of landscape protection ensured their effective management, and made clear the strong political, business and community support which the bid enjoyed, based on clear goals and ambitions. Inscription makes clear that there is a strong case for other globally significant quarrying landscapes to become World Heritage Sites.
Acknowledgements
My thanks go to those with whom I had the pleasure of working on the bid from 2009 onwards. As well as those already mentioned, Gwenan Pritchard and Sioned Williams at Gwynedd Council were instrumental to the bid’s success, as were Christopher Catling, John Dollery, Dr Toby Driver and Sue Fielding at the Royal Commission, the staff of the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, and John Roberts and his colleagues at the Snowdonia National Park. It is a pleasure also to mention Jon Knowles of Penrhyndeudraeth whose extensive knowledge of underground workings and photographic skills are evident in the Nomination dossier, the assistance and support of Dr Dafydd Roberts, formerly of the Slate Museum, Cadi Iolen of the Slate Museum and Sean Taylor of Zipworld, and the help of those who have worked or currently work in the industry, above all, Peredur Hughes, quarry manager, historian, author and conservationist, and Michael Bewick of Llechwedd and his team. Profound thanks are also due to the Plas Tan y Bwlch industrial archaeology group, and to the members of Fforwm Plas Tan y Bwlch.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
Figures 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 are Crown copyright and are reproduced with the permission of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), under delegated authority from The Keeper of Public Records.
All web sources accessed December 2022.
1 George W. Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 48–71.
2 Jean Lindsay, A History of the North Wales Slate Industry (Newton Abbot, London, North Pomfret, VT and Vancouver: David and Charles, 1974); R. Merfyn Jones, The North Wales Quarrymen 1874–1922 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1981); M.J.T. Lewis and J.H. Denton, Rhosydd Slate Quarry (Shrewsbury: Cottage Press, 1974); M.J.T. Lewis, Llechi/Slate (Caernarfon: Gwynedd County Council, 1976); M.J.T. Lewis, with M.C. Williams, Pioneers of Ffestiniog Slate (Maentwrog: Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, 1987; Welsh edition as Chwarelwyr Cyntaf Ffestiniog); Sails on the Dwyryd (Maentwrog: Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, 1989).
3 These are retained at Plas Tan y Bwlch and may be consulted by prior arrangement.
4 Andrew Davidson, David Gwyn, Gwynfor Pierce Jones and Helen Riley, Gwynedd Quarrying Landscapes: Slate Quarries (Bangor: Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 1994), http://www.walesher1974.org/her/groups/GAT/media/GAT_Reports/GATreport_129_compressed.pdf; Andrew Davidson, Andrew Dutton, Helen Flook and David Gwyn, Gwynedd Slate Quarries: An Archaeological Survey (Bangor: Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 1995), http://www.walesher1974.org/her/groups/GAT/media/GAT_Reports/GATreport_154_compressed.pdf; and David Gwyn, Gwynedd Slate Quarries: Mills, Power Systems, Haulage Technology, Barracks (Bangor: Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, 1997, not currently available online).
5 ‘The United Kingdom’s World Heritage Review of the Tentative List of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Independent Expert Panel Report to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’, March 2011, p. 59, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78234/Review-WH-Tentative-List-Report_March2011.pdf.
20 David Gwyn, with Eric Jones, Dolgarrog: An Industrial History (Caernarfon: Gwynedd Archives Services, 1989); David Gwyn, with Professor Marilyn Palmer, ‘Understanding the Workplace: A Research Framework for Industrial Archaeology in Britain’, Industrial Archaeology Review 27, no. 1 (2005); David Gwyn, Gwynedd: Inheriting a Revolution (Chichester: Phillimore, 2006); David Gwyn, Welsh Slate: History and Archaeology of an Industry (Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, 2015).
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David Gwyn
Dr David Gwyn has worked in archaeology for nearly 30 years, initially with the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust and more recently running his own consultancy business. He formed part of a team providing advice to Wrexham County Borough Council on the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and Llangollen canal World Heritage bid, inscribed in 2009, and was lead consultant on ‘The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales bid’, inscribed in 2021. His publications include Dolgarrog: An Industrial History (with Eric Jones, 1989); A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of North West Wales (with Merfyn Williams, 1996); Understanding the Workplace: A Research Framework for Industrial Archaeology in Britain (with Professor Marilyn Palmer); Gwynedd: Inheriting a Revolution (2006); and Welsh Slate — Archaeology and History of an Industry (2015).Footnote20 He was editor of Industrial Archaeology Review from 2002 to 2010.