Slate Quarry Drainage Level - Wales

There are some other nice bits of industrial history to see here such as the engineers' workshops with some tools, loading carts, sumped sub levels which are always amazing to see in slate mines as the water is crystal clear most of the time and some impressively wide shafts leading back up to the surface.

A lot of the workings here have been purposely collapsed and we came across a rogue eel that managed to bank itself in a dry corner, after spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to get the f*cker in a spare Tesco bag to return it to the water i came to terms with why the term "as slippery as an eel" existed.

After poking our heads out the quarry side adit we watched the tourists above taking part in the quarries activities overhead. After a meal deal by the quarry we headed back in and out the drainage level which was much easier when not fighting against the flow of water.​

History

“Serving as a drainage channel for a nearby slate quarry. A keystone can be seen at the adit inscribed with 1849, the year George Twigge drove this channel and the Victorian era brickwork can be seen scattered throughout. This wet drainage channel stretches over a mile in length and proves tiring work when heading upstream. One of the main things to see here has to be one of the huge hydraulic pumps that was left behind, 380 ft below the surface built by Winton Caenarvon. These pumps had a capacity of around 800 gallons per minute”.