You only have to take a few short steps from my front door in Y Fron to be in the heart of the slate industry. The story of the Welsh slate industry can be seen from the sprawling slate tips to the glimpses of rusting train track now used as fence posts in many of the walls in the surrounding fields.
The quarries are now mostly silent apart from the occasional tractor and trailer carrying slate waste from the tips used in people’s gardens to create water features and rustic sculptures. Enabling a small part of this once thriving industry to be repurposed for the twenty first century for people to enjoy.
It is a privilege to live in this breath-taking landscape with reminders of the slate industry all around. Exploring the now silent quarries provides a unique insight into the life of the quarrymen. The landscape is changing and evolving as nature gradually reclaims the slate tips and the deep quarries hued out of the mountains by the quarrymen of the past. They are now havens for wildlife some filled with water others with vegetation providing habits for small animals.
Walking from my house it is possible to actually climb the steps used by the quarrymen as they walked from the village to the Cilgwn quarry. Along the same route you can see examples of abandoned train track and parts of rusting slate wagons used to haul the slate out of the quarry. Many of the neglected pieces of machinery and train track used to fill in gaps in the fields helping in a strange way to preserve the rich industrial heritage of the area.
Now that the area is part of the newly designated World Heritage Site for the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales this hopefully means that more people will come to appreciate the footsteps of these long forgotten quarrymen who created this unique landscape which has become part of the fabric of the village and a place in which I am very proud to live.
Photo Copyright: Pam Smith