Prototype: Nant y Pandy Slate Mill...

Another instalment in the wanderings around the old Deeside Tramway, and this time up to Nant-y-Pandy from the A5 in Glyndyfrdwy...

Previous instalments have covered the Slab Quarry and Moel Fferna, and I hope to document the lower incline and slate wharf in the coming months too, in fact it strikes me that a ground survey and taking some measurements might be worthwhile before too much more is lost.

The walk up from the road is a lovely stroll alongside the river, behind the village hall. The stroll takes just 15 minutes, and you climb up the old waste tips to the mill site, with the route of the tramway crossing in front of you. Straight on up the hill to the slab quarry, and across the stream on a bridge to the left down to the incline, the A5 and the wharf on the old GWR Ruabon to Barmouth line. Walking on into the mill site the cutting shed is long gone, but the rear wall remains, with a few old lengths of iron rail lying in the undergrowth.

The end wall is also in-situ and shows signs of the supports for the water wheel bearing...

and the old water wheel pit is accessible this time of year, as the undergrowth has died down...

Beyond the mill building, the old office stands vigil over the site, missing an end wall as the river has undermined and washed away it's foundations. The river then runs through the site, whereas previously it had been diverted around the back of the next structure, a series of sheds with an open front - storage? further slate cutting but more manual?

Finally, a pair of iron rails found, just to the left of this building, laid down as if a track, but could equally have been part of the roof supports later in life, but twisted and bent as can be seen...

A good fun explore, note glove shown for scale.
More soon...