Author Topic: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry  (Read 3809 times)

Offline YrElldee

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Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« on: Sunday 08 March 20 08:30 GMT (UK) »
I'm researching 5 houses that were buried under the slate tips of Penrhyn Quarry near the old hospital. I'm particularly interested in photos and information about Traws(Tros) y ffordd, Ty'n y coed, Bryn Llwyd and Mount Pleasant. There was a second Bryn Llwyd - a terrace similar to those at Caeberllan or Grisiau Cochion and it was very near the hospital.
I would also be interested in the area north of Llyn Meurig called Bryn Llys which was near Lon Goch (near Grisiau Cochion). This is near the original St Ann's church built in 1812 and was also buried.

Offline Quarryman

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 28 March 20 12:31 GMT (UK) »
Hi Yr Elldee,

Just and addendum; I thought St Ann's Church was built in the 1700s. My grandfather, John Henry Roberts, was a pupil of Evan Thomas, organist at St Ann's in the mid-1800s, and often sat alongside him at church services. My grandfather (still in his early teens) went on to become organist at Shiloh Wesleryan Methodist Chapel in Tregarth. He had also started his career as a composer. He later went to work at Bryneglwys Quarry in Meriomethshire, formed a quarry choir and won many prizes at the Harlech Music Festival. He then went to the RAM in London, graduated and returned to his native Caernarvonshire. He was admitted to the Gorsedd in the 1870s, taking the name Pencerdd Gwynedd. He had a long and distinguished career as a composer and church organist, dying in Liverpool in 1924.


The last service at St Ann's was on September 3 1865.
Roberts, Caernarfon. Thomas, Caernarfon. Kite, Kent.

Offline YrElldee

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 29 March 20 11:25 BST (UK) »
Thank you for your very informative message about the original St Ann's Church.
I have some evidence that it was built in about 1812 St Ann's Centenary Souvenir; Gwynedd Family History  Soc. Memorial Inscriptions No M396. The 1st incumbent was Morris Hughes (1812-1860). However, I have the same doubts as you when you consider that it was named after the wife of Richard Pennant, Anne Susannah Warburton (1745-1814) and Richard had died in 1808 so it's a bit late to build it in 1812 when George Hay Dawkins had inherited the estate by then. Do you have concrete evidence? I also think the vicarage was the large house called Bryn Llys - just below Lon Goch and it was inhabited in the 1881 census by David Pritchard - a quarry agent, with his wife, family and 3 servants.
Thank you too for the information about your grandfather. The M396 lists the following organists/choirmasters but has no dates: Evan W Thomas Ty'n Clwt uchaf and later of Bangor, John Hughes - son of the above - (Eos Ceraint), Tai Duon, Coed y parc, Johnny Hughes, Cherry Cottage, Bryn Eglwys, Thomas Jones, Penygroes, Tregarth, Edmund Vale, Bethesda and William baden Powell Evans, Coed y parc in 1965.
Any additional information of the area would be most welcome.
Diolch.

Offline Quarryman

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 29 March 20 16:22 BST (UK) »
Hi YrElldee,

Located all the places you are researching on a late 1800s map, and also traced Traws y fford and Bryn Llwyd  on the 1841 census - enumerator's handwriting appalling - will search for the others.
Getting their history may be more difficult, but...

Have unearthed a copy of a pen and ink drawing of St Ann's Church "drawn shortly after it was built in the late 1700s", so that is confirmation of its construction.
Roberts, Caernarfon. Thomas, Caernarfon. Kite, Kent.


Online hanes teulu

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 29 March 20 17:42 BST (UK) »
When were the cottages buried? Tracking them on old maps (earliest 1888) they still appear in 1948.

Online hanes teulu

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 29 March 20 18:01 BST (UK) »

Offline YrElldee

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #6 on: Monday 30 March 20 09:17 BST (UK) »
Hi Quarryman,
A drawing of the original St Ann's church; is there anyway you can display it here? I'd love to see it. There's a slate engraving of the church from 1836 in this article in Hanes Dyffryn Ogwen:[/
https://hanesdyffrynogwen.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/llyn-meurig/

It appears with a tower but without transepts. Does your picture correspond and do you know when it was drawn?

The chronology of the buried houses can be determined from the 1848 Penrhyn Tithe map, the OS maps and the censuses from 1841 to 1939. The area can be divided into 2 for clarity. First, South of Llyn Meurig and nearest the hospital: these were Hall, Bryn Llwyd1 and Dol y Parc which went between 1881 - 91. Further south were Traws y Ffordd, Ty'n y Coed, Bryn Llwyd2, Mount Pleasant and the hospital. Ty'n y Coed went first in about 1960 then the others during mid-60s when McAlpine modernised the quarry. The hospital was partly demolished in 1978.
The 2nd area is north of Llyn Meurig called Bryn Llys. It's difficult to give dates because there were no names to the 11 or so houses in the area but it's safe to assume those closest to the tips went first. This was St Ann, then the houses along the Pennant road and finally the large house near Grisiau Cochion called Bryn Llys. This was probably the original vicarage and was last occupied in the 1881 census. The very last house was on Lon Goch; last lived in by brother and sister: Moses and Jane Jones (1939 register). It's a ruin now and I was there before the present curfew!

Offline Quarryman

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 02 April 20 15:14 BST (UK) »
Hi YrElldee,

    Managed to put the picture of St Ann's on the computer - will now try and get it to you somehow. Not tech savvy enough to pin it to a RootsChat message!  How do I do that? Could try and send it to you as an email attachment if you give me an email address. The drawing blown up shows the church with what I presume is the vicarage next to it and another house close by. The configuration tallies with that of the church and vicarage on the 1841 tithe map.

There is another puzzle that has just been thrown up - I have discovered another very poor (almost indistinguishable) drawning of a "Llandegai Church" which looks, as far as I can make out, similar to the St Ann's drawing, but the caption says it is of a 14th century church.

Was there a 14th century church in Llandegai?

Regards,

Quarryman
Roberts, Caernarfon. Thomas, Caernarfon. Kite, Kent.

Offline WelshGen

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Re: Houses buried under Penrhyn Quarry
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 02 April 20 16:05 BST (UK) »
To add a photo .. ''click on Reply'' box. Underneath is ''Attachments and other objects'' Clicking this brings up ''Attach'' with a browse box to search your comp for the photo you want to post.
I've added a postcard of Bethesda 1905
Jones, Parry, Williams on Lleyn, Hughes, Thomas on Anglesey/Caernarvonshire, Blunt, Davies, Lee in Dudley, Staffs
Cox, Humphreys and Keech, Bedford
My website http://www.spanglefish.com/welshgenealogy/