It was once the heart of an industry so important it was said to have "roofed the 19th century world". It's a region with such an illustrious past that it has shaped the lives, communities and even the landscape, an impact which is still discernible to this day. The north-west of Wales was home to some of the globe's busiest and influential slate quarries, thanks to a vast expanse of 500-million-year-old Cambrian slate spreading beneath the surface.
But as the industry declined, so too did some of the communities, and the village of Talysarn, once a bustling community, had to be relocated. The original village is now almost completely swallowed up by nature, reports WalesOnline . Slate was extracted in two different ways in the region: either open-air quarrying through the gallery method, or pioneering excavation methods and the creation of huge pits where there were subterranean slate deposits.
Numerous small quarries sprung up, each the result of various landowners establishing their own operations. Over time, the mergers and acquisitions resulted in larger corporations like Dorothea quarry. Dorothea quarry swung its gates open in 1820 and remained a bustling workplace until 1970.
It was built on land owned by Richard Garnons, but it was William Turner, a Lancashire man, who visioned and drove the quarry's development, reports Wales Online. Originally named Cloddfa Turner, the quarry was later renamed Dorothea after Garnons' wife. It evolved from a series of smaller quarrie.