4155

 

II*  

Designated  

11/04/1990  

21/08/2002  

Eastern Slab Mill at Felin Fawr Slate Works  

 

Gwynedd  

Llandygai  

Bethesda  

Coed-y-parc  

261505  

366367  

 

Located in the centre of yard at the Felin Fawr Slate Works, which adjoin the former Penrhyn Slate Quarry Railway and the west bank of the Afon Galedffrwd.  

Industrial  

 

The earliest slab mill at Felin Fawr works was operational by 1803. A second slab mill (called Felin Fach) is thought to have opened in 1846 to deal with the increased flow of slabs from the new quarry pits at the adjoining Penrhyn Slate Quarry. This building was superceded by the present mill in 1865-6. The mill complex was once the principal slate and slab manufacturing yard for the Penrhyn Slate Quarry, one of the most productive in Wales.  

Long rectangular plan building, aligned roughly north-south. Snecked rubblestone with hammer-dressed quoins and voussoirs; gable-ended slate roof with slate coping and oversailing eaves. Eastern elevation has 3 original segmental-headed doorways with later infill and to left an inserted full-height doorway; similar later opening on west side near north gable end, which has slate-roofed full-width open lean-to supported on 4 cast-iron columns. Outline of lower and narrower outbuilding visible to south gable end. 6 large rooflights in eastern roof slope.  

Interior not accessible at time of Survey.  

Included at grade II* as an especially fine slab mill which, together with the western slab mill, is an integral part of the remarkable complex of buildings at the Felin Fawr Slate works; the mills are amongst the finest of their kind in Wales. The site is historically important as marking the introduction of industrial processes to the sawing of slates.