Cloddfacoed Quarry

Overview

A small, late-18th-century slate quarry on the east side of Talysarn in the Nantlle Valley, worked only intermittently and on a tiny scale throughout its life before being acquired, unworked, by the neighbouring Dorothea quarry in the 1940s.

History

Cloddfa'r Coed (Cloddfacoed) Quarry, on the east side of Talysarn, was a small working dating from the late 18th century that opened only intermittently right up until well into the 20th century. Output stayed tiny throughout almost all of its working life -- other than a brief upturn in the 1890s, tonnages were minimal, with just four men producing a mere eight tons of slate between them in 1873. The quarry's pumping was handled by a Fawcett and Littledale engine, later adapted to also provide winding power. In the 1940s the site was acquired by the far larger neighbouring Dorothea quarry, but was never actually worked by its new owner; it has since been landscaped.

Geology

Slate of the Nantlle valley, worked from the Cambrian slate belt that runs north-east from Llanllyfni. The quarry sat on the east side of Talysarn among the largest workings of the valley - Dorothea immediately beside it - and the ground it opened was never rich enough to carry a working of any size.

Workings

Drained and, later, wound by a Fawcett and Littledale engine; worked on a very small scale throughout its life, with a workforce as small as four men.

Closure

Acquired, unworked, by the neighbouring Dorothea quarry in the 1940s; the site has since been landscaped.

What remains

The site has been landscaped. It lies within the Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape, which is Component Part 3 of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, inscribed in July 2020.

Nothing of the quarry's structures is recorded as standing: the site was landscaped after Dorothea gave up on it. What survives of its machinery is on paper - a drawing interpreting the design of its Fawcett and Littledale engine, made from an early plan and held in the Welsh Slate Publication Collection.

Related mines

• Dorothea Quarry — Dorothea acquired Cloddfacoed, unworked, in the 1940s.
• Pen-y-Bryn Quarry — Neighbours in the same Nantlle ground, 1.3 km apart, both overshadowed by Dorothea. Cloddfa'r Coed should not be confused with Cloddfa'r Lôn, the other name under which this quarry complex is recorded.

Recorded claims

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

• Cloddfa'r Coed Quarry was a small, late-18th-century working that opened only intermittently; other than a brief 1890s upturn, tonnages were minimal, with just four men producing eight tons of slate between them in 1873. ¹
• The quarry's drainage, and later its winding power too, was provided by a Fawcett and Littledale engine. ¹
• In the 1940s the site was acquired by the far larger neighbouring Dorothea quarry but was never actually worked by its new owner, and has since been landscaped. ^2,1
• The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales records the quarry as Cloddfa'r Coed Slate Quarry, Talysarn, NPRN 275743, at SH 49310 53130 in the community of Llanllyfni, an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slate quarry on the east side of Talysarn. ³
• The Commission's account rests on Lindsay's History of the North Wales Slate Industry (1974, page 314), A. J. Richards's Gazetteer of the Welsh Slate Industry (1991, page 48) and the Ordnance Survey twenty-five-inch Caernarvonshire sheet XXI.9 in its editions of 1899, 1900 and 1916. ³
• An interpretation of the design of the Fawcett and Littledale engine at Cloddfa'r Coed, drawn from an early plan and credited to Eric Lander, survives in the Welsh Slate Publication Collection. ³
• The site has since been landscaped. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The Welsh village that nature is reclaiming at historic slate quarry — North Wales Live / Daily Post
2. (secondary) Dorothea quarry — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Cloddfa'r Coed Slate Quarry, Talysarn (Coflein NPRN 275743) — Coflein / RCAHMW
4. (primary) Dyffryn Nantlle — Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales — Llechi Cymru / Wales Slate (Welsh Government)

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 28 September 2026