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Some unfinished business at Lliwedd...

10/1/2019

2 Comments

 
We  return to the copper mine and finish off what we started.
Picture
A view of the South Snowdon tramway's incline, from the old mule track up to the Lliwedd copper mine.
Last time here, we ran out of time and light. So we hiked again up the thigh-sapping mule road into Cwm Merch for another look at this fascinating mine.
This time, the weather was perfect and we didn't see a soul all day- peace reigned, except for the occasional buzzard, mewling high overhead.
It was a case of rinse, repeat until we arrived at the Cei Mulod, (mule loading platform) where Petra had a hunch that a trackway up to the higher levels might be found. She was right; it was more a feint path, but it made a great way to access the upper working areas. We were unavoidably late setting out, so the sun was already low in the sky- but it made for some wonderful photo opportunities. The first thing we saw as we climbed up was this:
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I'm assuming that this was the "office" building that Bick describes in his book. The smithy can be seen behind.
It seemed a very inhospitable spot for an office, but then, the Moel Hebog mine's buildings were in a similarly uncompromising location, too. Definitely a case of "shut the door behind you"- I imagine that those mules must have brought as much coal up as copper down in winter. The smithy was a fine structure, unfortunately the hearth had collapsed in, and there must have been issues with one of the walls as a buttress had been built against the south wall.
Picture
Note the double wall at the western end of the building. This was where the hearth was positioned. That's not Sasquatch on the right- just my shadow...
Petra made an interesting discovery in the wall of the smithy, which we pondered about for a while. A number of holes drilled into a block, most at least six inches deep. I offered the theory that these might have been used as a sort of "Swage block" to bend hot metal. I know that it is the custom at mines to drill a hole above the hearth to commemorate comrades killed at work, but this didn't seem an auspicious location for that sort of thing- although it was at working height.
Picture
The thick west wall of the smithy, with Gallt y Wenallt in the background.
We returned back to the office, where a well defined trackway went up again to another level. Here was a surprise- a reasonably well-preserved range of buildings which could only be the barracks.
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Picture
Behind the barracks can be seen the vast piles of cobbed spoil that litter the mountainside here.
The barracks were nestled against a big quartz outcrop. Dividing walls inside had fallen down, but considering the location, this was in really good condition.  The site here had originally been what looked like an intensive cobbing area, as spoil stretched over a wide, flat level- it had obviously been built up over decades of ore sorting. Not far to go to your work-place, anyway.
There was a small stream issuing from the mountain nearby, showing where the miners got their water supply. Behind, up the mountain, gaping holes showed where ore had been stoped out.
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Behind the barracks, the mountain is pocked with holes. Not a good route off the ridge in mist.
We made our way across the working area and soon came to one of the biggest stopes on the site.
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Imagine the ore that has been taken out here, then realise that it extends two hundred feet into the mountain. I suspect the rock has also been quarried here for ore. The depression in the front is actually another unfathomably deep hole.
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At the top of the stope, with the barracks in the middle distance. Cwm Merch runs in the centre of the picture while on the horizon the broad back of Cnicht obscures a view of the coast past Harlech.
It was very tempting to stay and fossick around looking for minerals on the tips- I found a chunk of what Bick describes as "Peacock ore", an almost iridescent mineral, and many fine chunks of chalcopyrite and quartz.  We carried on uphill again and found more buildings on a level that had perhaps been an early working. The structures were badly degraded, almost like walliau, surrounded by heaps of cobbed waste. The exposure here was a little bit frightening, with the proximity of those deep stopes.
But the sun was getting low and I wanted us to make it back while some light prevailed, so we reluctantly retraced our steps downhill. We'd done what we'd set out to do and finished the job.
Picture
One of the ruinous structures on the top levels. The air is certainly clean here, as evinced by the lichen growth- Trentepohlia grew red on the walls along with the white Aspicilia Calcarea.
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The vast quantities of waste.
A pile of "Moss Slates" stacked by the smithy.
Lovely lichen growths on the spoil.
Looking down on the barracks
For a description of the lower areas of the mine, take a look at the first post in this series, here.
Picture
Until next time...
2 Comments
Laura
25/2/2019 01:48:29 am

Oh, I don't know, your shadow looks quite like a centaur in its home environ, more than as a sasquatch... ;)

With the scope of this place it must have been extensively mined for a very long time. With waterwheel, crushers, and tons of machinery down below they were all set. Especially with source of fresh water and the barracks you found here. Still hard to believe the depth of the biggest stope; it's so immense it gives me the shivers, and I'm safe in my nice, warm home!

What are "moss slates" ? They appear to have at least one hole drilled into them...

So does Petra have special extrasensory powers for finding the right paths, or is it more from having researched topographicals? She so often leads the way and seems to always discover the right way to go, or do you sometimes abbreviate your trip ;)

Found this online :)
In Wales, Valeys bryngeth forth food,
And hilles metal right good.
Ranulf Higden, in Polychronicon, trans. John de Trevisa, 1387
from: https://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/personal-album-128/Mining-for-metals-in-Wales.pdf

In that same PDF, was this quote: "It often happens that the metalliferous minerals are more abundant where the lodes out through one kind of rock than through another, and the recognition of this tendency is often of considerable help in searching for productive ore." which helps explain to me why they dug out stopes in that manner, and how they were able to find the mineral/metal they wanted!

I came across the term fire-setting; would that explain the broken-looking rock wall next to the immense stope, do you think? Between fire and water it would break huge chunks of rock off, but it would also require vast amounts of wood. Hard to say if this area had that many trees... or is that where they all went?

Page 11 of that PDF discusses this: "...an improved method of fire-setting, the art of which was subsequently lost." which sounds terribly interesting. Wonder what it was?!

Reply
Iain
25/2/2019 09:55:32 am

Thanks very much, Laura :-) Moss slates are very early, rough slates that were not split finely, probably just worked in an unskilled way, usually not from good slate- probably sourced on the hill somewhere.
Petra always goes fiirst! She studies the satellite display for hours while I research the old documents, so we are a good team. I leave it to her to find the route, then I sit and study the remains we find....sounds a good deal- I carry the coffee, so she doesn't get too far ahead :-)
Thanks for the quote! Ah, yes, AditNow, a great site...there are a lot of good articles and info on there.
Fire setting, yes, a method used by the old man before gun powder was invented. William Stulkeley used it to destroy many of the megaliths in Britain, starting something that the farmers would like to finish these days. Hard to say how these stopes were worked, although certainly judging by the waste I would say that working from the toip seems likely. The lode would continue vertically for many hundreds of feet and sometimes extend for miles, depending on the rock conditions. Perhaps this is an early stope, in which case given that there aren't any jympar marks fire setting might have been involved- more likely the rock was crowbarred out, though.
I like the idea of being a centaur :-)

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