Carriers' Accounts of the Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry, Llanberis

This manuscript described the conditions governing the transport of slates from the Llanberis district to the quey at Caernarfon before the light railway was built to Port Dinorwic.

Of great interest is the names of the carriers - all farmers and cottagers of the neighbouring parishes, the names of their holdings, the types of slates referred to and the terms used to describe them together with the rates of carriage.

For each quarter the Glynrhonwy clerks were expected to furnish an accout of :

i. the loads taken by individual carriers

ii. the total tonnage sent to Caernarfon

iii. the number of slates "remaining upon the banks"

iv. the comparatively small export of slates from the Fachwen Quarry

Here and there occur some prominent names e.g. Thomas Williams of Brynbras Castle and Spencer Bulkeley Wynn, 3rd Lord Newborough.

Equally interesting are the particulars regarding slates supplied to the trustees of Rhostryfan Chapel and the Chapel at Bangor Street, Caernarfon.

The details regarding the sale of potatoes is somewhat obscure. It suffices, however, to keep green the old term, "berwad o datws".

The Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry Company operated at Llanberis, an area of Gwynedd (formerly Caernarfonshire) in north Wales which developed originally because of growth in the slate-quarrying industry which was at its peak between 1850 and 1910. In 1915, the company was in liquidation. Under instructions from F.G. Wynn, the Caernarfon auctioneer Robert Griffith Jones held a sale of quarry equipment on 25 April 1916.

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Another catalogue description can be found here https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb222-bmssgsq