Dolgarrog
Encyclopedia
Dolgarrog is a small village
in the Conwy County Borough in North Wales
situated between Llanrwst
and Conwy
, very close to the Conwy River. The village is well known for its industrial history since the 18th century and the Eigiau dam
disaster, which occurred in 1925. The population was 414 at the 2001 Census.
The village is served by Dolgarrog railway station
.
called Y Carrog. This mythical beast preyed on livestock and Dol-y-carrog was the favourite meadow on which it swooped down from the heights above to carry off sheep. So serious were the losses that the farmers went on a dragon hunt armed with bows, arrows and spears.
One farmer, Nico Ifan, refused to go, claiming a dream had forewarned him the Carrog would cause his death. His fellow farmers laid a poisoned sheep's carcass on the heights above Eglwysbach
across the river. The unsuspecting Carrog seized the bait, was caught and beaten to death.
Nico Ifan then came along to gloat over the dead dragon and cursed and kicked the corpse, whereupon the poisoned barbed wing of the Carrog pierced his leg thus fulfilling the death warning in his dream.
took a heavy toll in the lower Conwy Valley, particularly among the bond tenants regulated by the King's officers from Aberconwy
, Edward I
's new English borough. Their visits and contacts in effect spread the disease. Some townships of villeins, or crown tenants, such as Dolgarrog, were swept away. People left their lands or hid, unable to pay the taxes on their holdings.
' Gunpowder Plot
is said to have lived in the house Ardda'r Myneich (Monks Hill), whose ruins lie in the fields above the road between Porthlwyd and Dolgarrog bridges. Dr Thomas Williams (1550–1622), rector of St Peter's Church, Llanbedr-y-Cennin
, was charged with having papist
sympathies. He had warned Sir John Wynn of Gwydir
to stay away from the Houses of Parliament on that fateful day.
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/holidays/visits/tm_objectid=11860200&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=the-killing-fields-of-dolgarrog-name_page.html
Dolgarrog's industrialisation began in the 18th century with a flour mill
on Porthlwyd river to crush corn for local farmers. There was also a woolen
mill at Dolgarrog bridge and the Abbey mill.
The successful Porthlwyd mill was expanded by John Lloyd, son of founder Richard Lloyd. As well as grinding flour, he bought machines to make paper
and flock for bedding. Paper from Porthlwyd supplied local printers, including John Jones, printer of Trefriw
and later Llanrwst
.
In 1885 the villagers wanted to start a school at Porthlwyd. The old village of Dolgarrog appealed to Mr Robins, the then proprietor of the paper-mill. He let them turn a large empty room at the mill into a flourishing Sunday School
, known locally as Ystafell y drws goch ("the room with the red door") to make sure the children did not wander into the mill workings.
The Dolgarrog sawmill
of John Williams also flourished. It exported hundreds of tons of wooden railway sleepers for the new railways between 1845 and 1865. When the first sod was cut for the Conway and Llanrwst Railway
track on 25 August 1860, on Lord Newborough's land at Abbey, Dolgarrog, it was John Williams who supplied the sleepers.
The aluminium
works (or "smelter") was originally planned in 1895. Water from reservoir
s in the Snowdonia
Mountains would provide the hydro-electricity needed to run the mill.
In 1907, aluminium production began in the factory and in 1916 a rolling mill was added. In 1924, the hydro-electric plant was built next to the aluminium works to assist in the running of the mill.
During the Second World War the aluminium works were under the control of the Ministry of Aircraft Production and provided parts for aircraft. It is rumoured that the Luftwaffe
tried to destroy the works, but the bomber that was sent was shot down, and crash-landed in the mountains above the village.
The factory is no longer operating, smelting having already ceased in the 1940s. Alcoa bought out the company Luxfer in 2000 and announced its closure in June 2002. Dolgarrog Aluminium Ltd formed in 2002 and acquired the assets from Alcoa in 2002. The factory closed in late 2007.
In 1918 the Aluminium Corporation of Dolgarrog acquired a controlling interest in the North Wales Power & Traction Company. Dolgarrog consequently became the administrative centre of this company, and its chairman was Henry Joseph Jack. The company intended to supply electricity to the railways of north Wales, was the company behind the proposed Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway
. Jack subsequently purchased majority shares in the Ffestiniog Railway
, the Welsh Highland Railway
and the Snowdon Mountain Railway
, meaning that he was in control of all the passenger-carrying narrow gauge railways of that part of North Wales. The end of Dolgarrog's control on the railways came in 1924 when Jack resigned from the WHR, accepting blame for its lack of success, and the final nail in the coffin came in the form of the following year's dam disaster.
On 2 November 1925, the failure of two dams caused a flood that swamped the village of Dolgarrog, killing 16 people. The disaster
was started by the failure of the Eigiau Dam
, a gravity dam owned by the Aluminium Corporation. The water released from the reservoir flooded downstream, and overtopped the Coedty Dam
, an embankment dam. This dam also subsequently failed, releasing the huge volume of water that flooded Dolgarrog.
Many more villagers could have been killed had they not been in the local theatre watching a film that night.
The disaster at Dolgarrog led the British parliament to pass the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act in 1930 that introduced laws on the safety of reservoirs. This has since been updated, and the current one is the Reservoirs Act, 1975.
In 2004 a £60,000 memorial trail was created, explaining the tragic story to walkers. The trail takes visitors to where the boulders from the damaged dam reside. The project was opened by the last survivor of the dam disaster, Fred Brown, who on that night lost his mother and his younger sister. Black and white silent films of the incidents can be seen here
The construction of Eigiau dam had been facilitated by the construction of the Eigiau Tramway
, which largely followed the route of the Cedryn Quarry Tramway
from Dolgarrog. The incline was upgraded (and the lower section re-aligned), enabling steam engines to reach the starting point of the tramway, near Coedty reservoir
. The tramway was built to standard gauge
, but was subsequently relaid in narrow gauge (from about 1916) when the Cowlyd Tramway
was begun. This latter tramway branched off from the Eigiau tramway at the top of the Dolgarrog incline.
The line of the railway incline has today been replaced by a second pipeline, and the adjoining hillsides are wooded. However, there is a public footpath which goes up the hillside to the left of the pipeline, and in places the timberwork can still be seen. Today the left pipeline (viewed from Dolgarrog) carries water from Llyn Cowlyd, the right pipeline carries water from Coedty reservoir.
To the south of the Health Centre the remains of a lower incline (the old route of the Cedryn Tramway) can still be seen. This incline, which joined the upper section a little above the village, passed through a short tunnel under the road at Tyddyn Isaf, visible from the main road.
From here the original quarry tramway continued across the marshland to the edge of the River Conwy at Porth Llwyd wharf.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the Conwy County Borough in North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
situated between Llanrwst
Llanrwst
Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....
and Conwy
Conwy
Conwy is a walled market town and community in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales. The town, which faces Deganwy across the River Conwy, formerly lay in Gwynedd and prior to that in Caernarfonshire. Conwy has a population of 14,208...
, very close to the Conwy River. The village is well known for its industrial history since the 18th century and the Eigiau dam
Llyn Eigiau
Llyn Eigiau is a lake on the edge of the Carneddau range of mountains in Snowdonia, North Wales.The name Eigiau is thought to refer to the shoals of fish which once lived here. Early maps refer to it as Llynyga...
disaster, which occurred in 1925. The population was 414 at the 2001 Census.
The village is served by Dolgarrog railway station
Dolgarrog railway station
Dolgarrog railway station is an unstaffed halt, and a request stop, on the Conwy Valley Line from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog and is located on the east bank of the River Conwy just across the A470 road from Plas Maenan, which was the home of Henry Jack, the Managing Director of the...
.
History
The legend of Y Carrog
Believed to have been established around 1200 AD, Dolgarrog is said to have got its name from a flying dragonDragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
called Y Carrog. This mythical beast preyed on livestock and Dol-y-carrog was the favourite meadow on which it swooped down from the heights above to carry off sheep. So serious were the losses that the farmers went on a dragon hunt armed with bows, arrows and spears.
One farmer, Nico Ifan, refused to go, claiming a dream had forewarned him the Carrog would cause his death. His fellow farmers laid a poisoned sheep's carcass on the heights above Eglwysbach
Eglwysbach
Eglwysbach is a village in Conwy county borough, north Wales. The village plays host to an annual Agricultural show and horticultural show in August, which includes displays of local cattle, sheep, heavy and light horses, showjumping a horticulture marquee, fairground rides and trades stands...
across the river. The unsuspecting Carrog seized the bait, was caught and beaten to death.
Nico Ifan then came along to gloat over the dead dragon and cursed and kicked the corpse, whereupon the poisoned barbed wing of the Carrog pierced his leg thus fulfilling the death warning in his dream.
The Black Death
In the 1350s the Black DeathBlack Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
took a heavy toll in the lower Conwy Valley, particularly among the bond tenants regulated by the King's officers from Aberconwy
Aberconwy
Aberconwy may refer to:*Aberconwy *Aberconwy *Aberconwy , a defunct administrative division of Gwynedd*Battle of Aberconwy See Also...
, Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
's new English borough. Their visits and contacts in effect spread the disease. Some townships of villeins, or crown tenants, such as Dolgarrog, were swept away. People left their lands or hid, unable to pay the taxes on their holdings.
The Gunpowder Plot
A man privy to Guy FawkesGuy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
' Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
is said to have lived in the house Ardda'r Myneich (Monks Hill), whose ruins lie in the fields above the road between Porthlwyd and Dolgarrog bridges. Dr Thomas Williams (1550–1622), rector of St Peter's Church, Llanbedr-y-Cennin
Llanbedr-y-Cennin
Llanbedr-y-Cennin is a small village in Conwy county borough, Wales.It lies in the foothills on the western side of the Conwy valley, in North Wales. The river Conwy runs through the valley, running into the sea to the north, at the town of Conwy, which is about five miles north of the village. ...
, was charged with having papist
Papist
Papist is a term or an anti-Catholic slur, referring to the Roman Catholic Church, its teachings, practices, or adherents. The term was coined during the English Reformation to denote a person whose loyalties were to the Pope, rather than to the Church of England...
sympathies. He had warned Sir John Wynn of Gwydir
Gwydir
Gwydir may refer to:Australia*Gwydir Highway, New South Wales*Gwydir River, New South Wales*Division of Gwydir, electoral divisionUnited Kingdom*Gwydir Castle, Conwy, Wales*Gwydir Forest, Conwy, Wales...
to stay away from the Houses of Parliament on that fateful day.
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/holidays/visits/tm_objectid=11860200&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=the-killing-fields-of-dolgarrog-name_page.html
Industry
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
on Porthlwyd river to crush corn for local farmers. There was also a woolen
Woolen
Woolen or woollen is a type of yarn made from carded wool. Woolen yarn is soft, light, stretchy, and full of air. It is thus a good insulator, and makes a good knitting yarn...
mill at Dolgarrog bridge and the Abbey mill.
The successful Porthlwyd mill was expanded by John Lloyd, son of founder Richard Lloyd. As well as grinding flour, he bought machines to make paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
and flock for bedding. Paper from Porthlwyd supplied local printers, including John Jones, printer of Trefriw
Trefriw
Trefriw is a village in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It lies on the river Conwy in North Wales, a few miles south of the site of the Roman fort of Canovium, sited at Caerhun. The parish population in 2001 was 924....
and later Llanrwst
Llanrwst
Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....
.
In 1885 the villagers wanted to start a school at Porthlwyd. The old village of Dolgarrog appealed to Mr Robins, the then proprietor of the paper-mill. He let them turn a large empty room at the mill into a flourishing Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
, known locally as Ystafell y drws goch ("the room with the red door") to make sure the children did not wander into the mill workings.
The Dolgarrog sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
of John Williams also flourished. It exported hundreds of tons of wooden railway sleepers for the new railways between 1845 and 1865. When the first sod was cut for the Conway and Llanrwst Railway
Conway and Llanrwst Railway
The Conway and Llanrwst Railway was a standard gauge railway built to connect the Welsh coastal town of Conway, nowadays addressed by its Welsh name of Conwy, with the inland towns of Llanrwst and Betws y Coed. It opened in 1863 and was eventually absorbed into the lines operated by the London and...
track on 25 August 1860, on Lord Newborough's land at Abbey, Dolgarrog, it was John Williams who supplied the sleepers.
The aluminium works
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
works (or "smelter") was originally planned in 1895. Water from reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
s in the Snowdonia
Snowdonia
Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...
Mountains would provide the hydro-electricity needed to run the mill.
In 1907, aluminium production began in the factory and in 1916 a rolling mill was added. In 1924, the hydro-electric plant was built next to the aluminium works to assist in the running of the mill.
During the Second World War the aluminium works were under the control of the Ministry of Aircraft Production and provided parts for aircraft. It is rumoured that the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
tried to destroy the works, but the bomber that was sent was shot down, and crash-landed in the mountains above the village.
The factory is no longer operating, smelting having already ceased in the 1940s. Alcoa bought out the company Luxfer in 2000 and announced its closure in June 2002. Dolgarrog Aluminium Ltd formed in 2002 and acquired the assets from Alcoa in 2002. The factory closed in late 2007.
In 1918 the Aluminium Corporation of Dolgarrog acquired a controlling interest in the North Wales Power & Traction Company. Dolgarrog consequently became the administrative centre of this company, and its chairman was Henry Joseph Jack. The company intended to supply electricity to the railways of north Wales, was the company behind the proposed Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway
Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway
The Porthmadog, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway was a narrow gauge railway intended to connect Porthmadog with the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways link terminus at Rhyd Ddu...
. Jack subsequently purchased majority shares in the Ffestiniog Railway
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park....
, the Welsh Highland Railway
Welsh Highland Railway
The Welsh Highland Railway is a long restored narrow gauge heritage railway in North Wales, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway...
and the Snowdon Mountain Railway
Snowdon Mountain Railway
The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is a tourist railway that travels for from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales....
, meaning that he was in control of all the passenger-carrying narrow gauge railways of that part of North Wales. The end of Dolgarrog's control on the railways came in 1924 when Jack resigned from the WHR, accepting blame for its lack of success, and the final nail in the coffin came in the form of the following year's dam disaster.
Dam Disaster
Disaster
A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...
was started by the failure of the Eigiau Dam
Llyn Eigiau
Llyn Eigiau is a lake on the edge of the Carneddau range of mountains in Snowdonia, North Wales.The name Eigiau is thought to refer to the shoals of fish which once lived here. Early maps refer to it as Llynyga...
, a gravity dam owned by the Aluminium Corporation. The water released from the reservoir flooded downstream, and overtopped the Coedty Dam
Coedty Reservoir
Coedty Reservoir is a reservoir in Snowdonia, North Wales. It is fed by the waters of Afon Porth-llwyd which flows from Llyn Eigiau. The reservoir lies at a height of , and measures some in size. It contains brown trout....
, an embankment dam. This dam also subsequently failed, releasing the huge volume of water that flooded Dolgarrog.
Many more villagers could have been killed had they not been in the local theatre watching a film that night.
The disaster at Dolgarrog led the British parliament to pass the Reservoirs (Safety Provisions) Act in 1930 that introduced laws on the safety of reservoirs. This has since been updated, and the current one is the Reservoirs Act, 1975.
In 2004 a £60,000 memorial trail was created, explaining the tragic story to walkers. The trail takes visitors to where the boulders from the damaged dam reside. The project was opened by the last survivor of the dam disaster, Fred Brown, who on that night lost his mother and his younger sister. Black and white silent films of the incidents can be seen here
The construction of Eigiau dam had been facilitated by the construction of the Eigiau Tramway
Eigiau Tramway
The Eigiau Tramway might refer to the Eigiau Quarry Tramway or to the Eigiau Reservoir Tramway.- Eigiau Quarry Tramway :The Eigiau Quarry Tramway was a narrow gauge mile-long horse-powered tramway which operated from c1863 to c1888 and served the Eigiau slate quarry [ref SH702635], near Llyn Eigiau...
, which largely followed the route of the Cedryn Quarry Tramway
Cedryn Quarry Tramway
The Cedryn Quarry Tramway was an industrial narrow gauge railway that connected the slate quarries at Cedryn and Cwm Eigiau to the quays at Dolgarrog in the Conwy valley.- History :...
from Dolgarrog. The incline was upgraded (and the lower section re-aligned), enabling steam engines to reach the starting point of the tramway, near Coedty reservoir
Coedty Reservoir
Coedty Reservoir is a reservoir in Snowdonia, North Wales. It is fed by the waters of Afon Porth-llwyd which flows from Llyn Eigiau. The reservoir lies at a height of , and measures some in size. It contains brown trout....
. The tramway was built to standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
, but was subsequently relaid in narrow gauge (from about 1916) when the Cowlyd Tramway
Cowlyd Tramway
The Cowlyd Tramway was a narrow gauge gauge railway line used to convey men and materials to Llyn Cowlyd Reservoir, near Trefriw in North Wales during the enlargement of the dam, and thereafter for maintenance purposes.-History:...
was begun. This latter tramway branched off from the Eigiau tramway at the top of the Dolgarrog incline.
The line of the railway incline has today been replaced by a second pipeline, and the adjoining hillsides are wooded. However, there is a public footpath which goes up the hillside to the left of the pipeline, and in places the timberwork can still be seen. Today the left pipeline (viewed from Dolgarrog) carries water from Llyn Cowlyd, the right pipeline carries water from Coedty reservoir.
To the south of the Health Centre the remains of a lower incline (the old route of the Cedryn Tramway) can still be seen. This incline, which joined the upper section a little above the village, passed through a short tunnel under the road at Tyddyn Isaf, visible from the main road.
From here the original quarry tramway continued across the marshland to the edge of the River Conwy at Porth Llwyd wharf.