Bellstone Quarry

Overview

The northern half of the Rosebush slate workings on the Preseli Hills, first worked in 1825 under separate ownership from its larger neighbour and disused by 1891. It ran intermittently for sixty-odd years and by the Royal Commission's account was never successful.

History

Bellstone — Precelly slate quarry in the Royal Commission's record — was first worked in 1825, half a century before the Rosebush workings immediately to its south were developed on any scale. The two are contiguous along the hillside, and together their workings run some 725 metres, about 280 metres at the widest; Bellstone's own extend roughly 500 metres north to south by 250 metres. They were never one concern: the quarries lay under separate ownership throughout, Bellstone belonging to Sir Hugh Owen of Goodwick. Owen backed Edward Cropper, the London and North Western Railway director who developed Rosebush on four levels in the mid-1870s and built the Maenclochog Railway — eight miles from the quarries down to the Great Western at Clunderwen — chiefly to carry slate. That line, opened in 1876, is what made intensive working possible here at all, and Bellstone had the benefit of it. It did not save the quarry. The Royal Commission's verdict is that Bellstone operated only intermittently from 1825 until the late 1880s and was never successful. The Ordnance Survey sheet of 1889 shows it disused but apparently intact, and it was gone by 1891 — more than twenty years before Rosebush itself stopped in 1914.

Geology

The quarry worked the slate of the Preseli Hills, on the southern slopes of the range above Rosebush. It is the same Ordovician slate belt that runs across Wales, here at its south-western end, and the Rosebush workings alongside produced roofing slate on a scale that made them the largest slate quarry in Pembrokeshire.

Geological setting: Slate and Regional Metamorphism (well documented example)

Workings

Hillside workings over an area of about 500 metres north to south by 250 metres, contiguous with the Rosebush galleries to the south but separately owned and worked. Nothing of the plant is recorded in the sources read; the mill, incline and tunnel described on this hillside belong to Rosebush rather than to Bellstone.

Closure

Worked only intermittently from 1825 and disused by 1891; the Ordnance Survey of 1889 already shows it disused, though apparently intact.

What remains

The remains are less distinct than Rosebush's. The footpath north from Rosebush village passes the larger quarry's galleries and waste heaps first, and immediately beyond them are the fainter remains of Bellstone.

Degraded hillside workings and waste, north of and continuous with the Rosebush galleries.

Redevelopment

None; the hillside is open country in the Preseli Hills.

Related mines

• Rosebush Slate Quarry — Contiguous workings on the same Preseli hillside, Bellstone the northern and Rosebush the southern, always under separate ownership but sharing the Maenclochog Railway that Edward Cropper built in 1876 with Sir Hugh Owen of Bellstone among his backers.

Nearby mines

• Rosebush Slate Quarry — 0.3 km S
• Preseli Bluestone Quarries — 5.7 km NE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Precelly slate quarry, whose workings extend over about 500 m north to south by 250 m, was first worked in 1825 and disused by 1891, and is shown as disused but apparently intact on the Ordnance Survey county series sheet Pembroke XVIII.1 of 1889. ¹
• Bellstone was contiguous with Rosebush on the north but under separate ownership; together the workings extended for some 725 m along the hillside, about 280 m at the widest. ²
• The Royal Commission's judgement is that the Bellstone quarry operated only intermittently from 1825 until the late 1880s and was never successful. ²
• Sir Hugh Owen of Goodwick, owner of Bellstone quarry, supported Edward Cropper in developing Rosebush and building the Maenclochog Railway. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Precelly Slate Quarry (Bellstone), NPRN 309254 — Coflein, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
2. (primary) Rosebush Quarry, NPRN 309255 — Coflein, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
3. (secondary) Remains of Rosebush slate quarry — History Points

Record created: 8 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026