Video Description
The Streets of Bethesda.
Bethesda Band Celt sing about workers at the Penrhyn Quarry. Source:
YouTube.com
Penrhyn Slate Quarry
The Penrhyn Slate Quarry is a slate quarry located near Bethesda in north Wales. It is reputed to be the world's largest slate quarry: the main pit is nearly a mile long and 1200 feet deep.
The quarry was first developed in 1770 by Richard Pennant, later Baron Penrhyn although it is likely that small-scale slate extraction on the site began considerably earlier. Slates from the quarry were transported to the sea at Port Penrhyn on the narrow gauge Penrhyn
Quarry Railway built in 1798, one of the
earliest railway lines.
The quarry still produces slate though at a much reduced capacity from its heyday at the end of the 1800s. From 1964 until 2007 it was owned and operated by Alfred McAlpine PLC. In 2007 it was acquired by Rigcycle Limited.
Source:
Wikipedia, Penrhyn Quarry.
Open Pit Mining
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast mining, open-cut mining, and strip mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow.
Source: Wikipedia:
Open pit mining.
Bethesda, Gwynedd
Bethesda is a town lying on the River Ogwen and the A5 road on the edge of Snowdonia, in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. The town grew around the slate and stone quarrying industry, the largest of the local quarries being the Penrhyn
Quarry. At its peak, it was exporting
its dark blue-green slate all over the
world, and in so doing it gained a
reputation for being the world's best.
Source: Wikipedia:
Bethesda, Gwynedd.
Interactive Satellite Map
Explore the Penrhyn Slate Quarry pit,
Bethesda, Wales. Click a placemark. To Pan: click and drag or take advantage of the pan and zoom bars.
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