Votty and Bowydd Quarry

Overview

Votty and Bowydd, immediately northeast of Blaenau Ffestiniog, grew from small beginnings into one of the town's major slate quarries — merged from two separate workings in 1870, producing 17,000 tons of slate a year at its Edwardian peak, and finally absorbed into its neighbours after closure in 1963.

History

Bowydd quarry was first worked on a small scale from around 1800, but it was not until 1833, under John Whitehead Greaves — who went on to found the neighbouring Llechwedd quarry in 1846 — that it began commercial production. The separate Votty quarry and Bowydd merged in 1870 under the ownership of the Percival family, who retained control until 1933. At its peak around 1900 the combined quarry produced roughly 17,000 tons of slate a year and employed around 500 men. Oakeley Slate Quarries Co. Ltd took over the site in 1933, and Votty and Bowydd finally closed in 1963; its workings were sold to the owners of the adjoining Maenofferen quarry, which was itself later acquired by the Greaves family's Llechwedd quarry. Crushed slate continued to be produced from the site on a limited scale under Llechwedd's ownership.

Geology

The quarry worked the same thick Cambrian slate beds of the Ffestiniog district exploited at neighbouring Llechwedd, Oakeley and Maenofferen, extracted from underground chambers rather than open terraces.

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

Workings

Slate was worked through a series of underground pitches and chambers, connected to Blaenau Ffestiniog by an incline system whose engine house — providing power for working the inclines — survives on the site; a tramway also linked the workings to the Rhiwbach tramroad system.

Closure

Votty and Bowydd finally closed in 1963, with its workings sold to the neighbouring Maenofferen quarry.

What remains

Crushed slate has continued to be produced from part of the site on a limited scale under the ownership of the neighbouring Llechwedd quarry; the former Votty-Bowydd pit is now used as a quarry reservoir.

A ruined engine house that once powered the quarry's inclines survives, along with spoil tips, tramway formations and the ruins of the manager's residence at Quarry Bank.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Recorded claims

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

• At its peak around 1900 the quarry produced roughly 17,000 tons of slate a year and employed around 500 men. ¹

Photographs & further reading

This page doesn't try to reproduce everything — these are the best original sources found for this mine.

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Votty & Bowydd quarry — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Votty and Bowydd Slate Quarries mine plans — British Geological Survey / The Coal Authority
3. (secondary) Votty and Bowydd Slate Quarry Co. Ltd Records — Archives Hub

Record created: 24 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 August 2026