Full Report for Listed Buildings


Summary Description of a Listed Buildings


Reference Number
16521
Building Number
 
Grade
II  
Status
Designated  
Date of Designation
03/11/1995  
Date of Amendment
03/11/1995  
Name of Property
Incline Drumhouse at Middle Bank  
Address
 

Location


Unitary Authority
Conwy  
Community
Penmaenmawr  
Town
 
Locality
Penmaenmawr Quarry  
Easting
270503  
Northing
375945  
Street Side
 
Location
Located high up above Penmaenmawr overlooking the sea and the town below; on the middle bank of the quarry, now disused.  

Description


Broad Class
Industrial  
Period
 

History
Quarry at Penmaenmawr began on a formalised basis in the 1830s when the Graigclwyd quarry was found by Messrs Brassey and Tomkinson, though unofficial workings were established long before this date. The local granite, technically a quartz enstatite diabase, became prized for its quality and throughout the C19 and earlier C20 was used for the production of sett paving which was done on site. The quarried stone was also in demand for roadstone and railway ballast, for which it continues to be used at present. Goverment-issued mineral statistics for the year 1858 show that the two quarries then in operation, Penmean and Graigclwyd, wer producing a combined total of 134,080 tons of setts and granite. The quarring industry at Penmaenmawr attracted a sizling labour force and led directly to the establishment of the town in the second half of the C19, many of the worker's terraces of which were built by successive quarry owners like C.H Darbishire in the last decades if the century.  

Exterior
Late C19 counterbalance incline drumhouse; snecked rubble construction with mid-C20 concrete slab roof. The oak drum and steel cables remain in situ between two thick gable walls and the brake mechanism survives externally, though lacking its lever. Apparently one of the incline drumhouses shown on the 1888 OS map.  

Interior
 

Reason for designation
Listed as an exceptionally scarce survival of an intact counterbalance incline drumhouse.  

Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]





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