View source for Engineering:Dorothea quarry

{{Short description|Former slate quarry near Nantlle, in Carnarvonshire, Wales, UK}}
{{Infobox mine
| name                   = Dorothea
| image                  = DorotheaQuarry-01s.jpg
| width                  = 250px
| caption                = A flooded pit in the quarry in July 2010
| pushpin_map            = Wales Gwynedd
| pushpin_mapsize        = 250px
| pushpin_map_alt        = Map of Gwynedd showing the position of the quarry
| pushpin_map_caption    = Location in Gwynedd
| coordinates            = {{Coord|53|1|30|N|4|17|0|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}}<br>{{gbmappingsmall|SH 518 503}}
| place                  = near Talysarn
| subdivision_type       = County
| state/province         = Carnarvonshire (now Gwynedd)
| country                = Wales, UK
| products               = [[Chemistry:Slate|Slate]]
| amount                 = <!--include units--> 
| financial year         = 
| type                   = [[Earth:Quarry|Quarry]]
| greatest depth         = 
| discovery year         = 
| opening year           = 1820s
| active years           = 
| closing year           = {{end date|1970}}
}}
'''Dorothea quarry''' is a disused slate quarry in the Nantlle Valley area in North Wales. It covers a large area near the village of Talysarn and contains three flooded deep lakes. 

== History ==
=== Turner family ===
The quarry commenced working in the early 1820s, though there were a number of smaller workings on or near the site before this. About 1829 it was leased by William Turner who named the workings {{anchor|Cloddfa Turner}}'''Cloddfa Turner'''. In the 1830s the quarry was generating £2000 profits per year ({{Inflation|UK-GDP|2000|1830|2016|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}). Turner's son took over as manager and renamed the quarry Dorothea, apparently after the wife of the landowner Richard Garnons. Profits began to fall in the 1840s, and in April 1848 the quarry was put up for sale, with 22 years remaining on the lease.<ref name=Lindsay>{{cite book |first=Jean |last=Lindsay |title=A history of the North Wales slate industry |year=1974 |publisher=David & Charles}}</ref>

=== Local ownership ===
It was the largest quarry in the area, employing 200 men and producing 5,000-6,000 tons of finished slate a year. A group of quarrymen led by John Robinson, William Owen and John Jones purchased Dorothea from Turner for £3,000 - {{Inflation|UK-GDP|3000|1848|2016|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}. They renewed the lease of the quarry in June 1851. The quarry was put up for sale again in 1864, at which time production was given at 1,000 tons per month. No buyer was found, instead John Williams of Denbighshire gradually bought out many of the existing shareholders, and by 1879 he had amassed more than 70% of the shares.<ref name=Lindsay/>

Production peaked in 1872 at 17,442 tons,<ref name=AJR/> though 1875 was the most profitable year, generating  £14,738 ({{Inflation|UK-GDP|14738|1875|2016|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref name=Lindsay/> In the 1930s over 350 men were employed at Dorothea. Production dropped significantly after the start of [[Social:World War II|World War II]] and the quarry closed in 1970.<ref name=AJR>{{cite book |author=Richards, Alun John |title=The Slate Regions of North and Mid Wales |pages=70&ndash;71}}</ref>

=== After closure ===
Since quarrying ended in 1970, the Dorothea quarry has flooded and become a popular site for scuba diving (even though there are no facilities provided, and diving is officially banned in the quarry); the unregulated nature and depth of the site has encouraged some divers to overestimate their capabilities &ndash; in the decade 1994–2004, 21 divers lost their lives in the quarry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/3557437.stm |title=Why Dorothea claims lives |accessdate=2007-03-16 |date=2004-03-22|work=North-west Wales News |publisher=BBC Online }}</ref>

== Description ==

The quarry sits at the bottom of the wide Nantlle valley and consists of six pits, the deepest dropping 106m from the surface. The slate veins here run vertically, allowing unusually deep vertical pits to be dug. Because the pits fall below the [[Earth:Water table|water table]] they needed to be constantly pumped to stay dry. A [[Physics:Cornish engine|Cornish beam engine]] was installed in 1904 to pump the pits; it stayed in use until 1951 when it was replaced with electric pumps.<ref name=AJR/> This was the last new Cornish engine to be built.{{efn-lr|Another engine was installed later at Hodbarrow Mine, Cumberland, but this was an older engine, re-located.}} It remains in situ in its Grade I listed engine house.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cornish Beam engine, Dorothea Quarry, Dyffryn Nantlle |url=http://www.penmorfa.com/Slate/beamengine.html |website=The Slate Industry of North and Mid Wales |accessdate=21 February 2019}}</ref>

== Transportation ==

The quarry was one of the first users of the {{RailGauge|3ft6in}} Nantlle Railway in 1828. It later developed an extensive internal tramway system of {{RailGauge|2ft}} gauge. Dorothea was one of the first users of De Winton locomotives in 1869.<ref name=AJR/>

=== Locomotives ===
{{RailGauge|2ft}} gauge locomotives known to have worked at Dorothea.
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Builder
!Works No.
!Date built
!Type
!Notes
|-
|<ref name=blc>{{Tonks-North Wales}}</ref>
|De Winton
|
|c1869
|Scrapped by 1914
|-
|''Glyn''<ref name=blc/>
|De Winton
|
|1874
|Scrapped by 1914
|-
|''Dorothea''
|Hunslet
|763
|1901
|Worked until 1942. Now preserved on the Launceston Steam Railway<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.launcestonsr.co.uk/dorothea.html |title=Dorothea |publisher=Launceston Steam Railway |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108042006/http://www.launcestonsr.co.uk/dorothea.html |archivedate=2014-11-08 }}</ref>
|-
|''Wendy''
|W.G. Bagnall
|2091
|1919
|Purchased from the Votty & Bowydd Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1930. Preserved by the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Trust<ref name=NGR>{{cite web |url=http://www.ngrm.org.uk/Collections/industrialRailways/DorotheaSlateQuarry |title=Dorothea Slate Quarry |publisher=The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum}}</ref> and donated by them to the Statfold Barn Railway
|-
|<ref name=blc/>
|[[Company:Deutz AG|Deutz]]
|
|1926
|Purchased from the Votty & Bowydd quarry in March 1930. Believed scrapped.
|-
|<ref name=blc/>
|[[Company:R A Lister and Company|Lister]]
|33527
|
|Out of use in October 1960. Scrapped in 1964.
|-
|<ref name=blc/>
|[[Company:R A Lister and Company|Lister]]
|3916
|
|ex-Tarmac Limited contract in Wolverhampton. Out of use by 1964.
|-
|<ref name=blc/>
|[[Company:R A Lister and Company|Lister]]
|3950
|
|ex-Tarmac Limited contract in Wolverhampton. Out of use by October 1960. Scrapped in 1964.
|}

== References ==
{{Notelist-lr}}

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Cornish engines]]

{{Sourceattribution|Dorothea quarry}}