Welsh Slate Museum; Unexpected Blacksmithing.

[Simian]

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours at the Welsh national slate museum this weekend. 

I didn't expect to see such a fantastic forge there, as well as a remarkable foundry (no longer in use), wood yard, and all the other crafts needed for a fully functional slate quarry & factory to be self sufficient over 100 years ago. This included a shop to repair their own small gauge trains.

I only got a few pics, but thought a few of you here may be interested. 

I've put the main pic up there as a reference; The large rectangular tower with the red tank is the water wheel - this drives a jack shaft that powers everything in the entire complex. the shaft runs the entire length of the metal shops, foundry and forge (all contained in the long, low, run of building with many chimneys) and via a bevel gear, runs along the wood shops, and repair shops along in the buildings next to the waterwheel. Phenomenal. 

you can see the water wheel through the port at the top of the pic;

Foundry;

The bevel gear;

One of several power hammers, all run off the jack shaft;

4 forges, and many, many post vices.

 

 

Hope you all like the pics.

[NoGoodWithUsernames]

Very cool, those massive cast brackets supporting the drive shaft on the wall are not something you see every day. Thanks for sharing!

[Frosty]

I'd love to visit the UK one of these days just to get the chance to wander around places like that. It looks like they had the forge working, no? 

A water wheel with that much diameter would put out a lot of torque. Just the ticket for driving all that line shaft and machinery.

Thank you for the glimpse. I found the website but it seems aimed at selling tours rather than showing or explaining the site or industry. Is there one I didn't find?

Frosty The Lucky.

[MacLeod]

1 hour ago, Simian said:

Hope you all like the pics.

They are great pictures.  Thank you for sharing. Definitely on my ‘to see’ list now. 

[George N. M.]

Very cool.  Imagine the noise when everything was working.

[Scott NC]

  Thanks for the photos.  It's a look into things that many of us may never see.  I wonder if the entire factory and quarry are open to the public.  I can imagine spending entire days there looking and asking questions.  Aside from the aerial photo, the steps along the wall give great perspective to the size of the water wheel.  Their own narrow guage rr shop!

[Tim695]

Thats awesome. did they happen to mention how much water the water wheel used and how they got the water up to the tanks on the roof?

 

I love seeing this stuff.

[Simian]

Glad you all like

Frosty yes, the forge was running, and the smith was making small items, doing a very decent demo. there's not much info online, but this has an interesting video; https://www.visitwales.com/attraction/museum/national-slate-museum-752525 it's run on a shoestring, and entry etc is totally free! 

 

Scott NC practically EVERYTHING is open to walk around, basically every inch, apart from a few irrelevant staff areas. not the quarry itself though - although there are plenty of abandoned slate mines in Wales to walk around.

Tim695 No idea on how much water it used, but it's fed by pipe from the mountains above by gravity.

This vid shows it quite well, Smithy is at 4.30