Anglesey Light Railways

00, London North Western/London Midland & Scottish Railways

 

London North Western Railway

Anglesey Light Railways

 Newborough


Tal-y-foel, Cemaes, and Beaumaris are aspirations.


Newborough/Niwbwrch & Tal-y-foel


There are disagreements about dates but 1884-1914 here were plans to build a railway into South-East Anglesey. Initially a branch line then after the turn of the century a light railway.

 Anglesey & Caernarvon Direct Railway No. 1.
1893 Gaerwan to Tal-y-foel and ferry to Caernarvon.

 Anglesey & Caernarvon Direct Railway No. 2.
1894 Gaerwan to Tal-y-foel and ferry to Caernarvon plus a triangular Junction at Dwyran and a line to Newborough so trains could run via Newborough.
The line between Gaerwan and Tal-y-foel was on a slightly different route to No. 1.

South Anglesey Light Railway.
1909 Gaerwan to Newborough and Tal-y-foel. A light railway variant of No. 2.

 Parishes served
Newborough Llangeinwen Llanidan Llanddaniel-fab & LIannhangei-Esgeinog

 Newborough/Niwbwrch
Lies on the same ridge as Hengae Granite Quarries and there is a sand pit to the west of the village suggesting aggregate traffic.
 Newborough's warren was home to a thriving marram grass industry. Newborough's was famed into the 1920s for turning the grass into mats, haystack covers and brushes for whitewashing. Nets, and rope were also produced. The warren suggests traffic in rabbits.
 May have been linked to the Anglesey Coalfield (below).
 Newborough Forest, planted in 1947, is 700 hectares of Corsican and Scots pine.

 Tal-y-foel
A passenger ferry crossing the Menni Straits to Caernarvon moved to Y Foel, in 1850, was bought by Caernarfon Corporation in 1874, and closed on 30 July 1954.
The sandbanks in the Straits, particularly the quicksand of Traeth Gwyllt, caused problems.
It's unclear if the outlier either side of the Menai Straits was worked but if it was coal traffic is possible.


 Anglesey Coalfield
Location      the main body of is 9Km long and covers an area of 25km square, underlying the wetlands of Malltraeth Marsh, between Llangefni and the Cefni estuary. There is an out outlier either side of the Menai Straits.


 Sketch map of the Anglesey Coalfield


History         Coal was mined from the mid fifteenth century to the closure of Pont Marquis colliery in the early 1880s. During the early years of the twentieth century a committee was formed to reopen the coalfield at Llangristiolus but the middle class and farming gentry did not support the venture.

Geology       This coalfield is an outlier of Westphalian strata (Langsettian substage). Coal Measures are known to a depth of 358 m although the base of the succession has not been proved. Their are at least 8 seams with only three being in excess of 0.4m thick of which two exceeded 2m thick. Mining ceased before there was routine recording of activities, hence there is no available data to indicate the rank or methane content of the seams.

Malltraeth Marsh   was enclosed and drained in the late 18th and early 19th centuries for agricultural use. It also eased access to the coal.

 Berw Colliery   is the best preserved of a number of collieries that once formed the Anglesey coalfield and is one of a number of 19th-century coal mines at Malltraeth. It is unusual as it had a relatively short working life without the change and development seen at many other collieries. It illustrates many of the typical features of a small early nineteenth century Welsh coal mine. The shaft was sunk in 1839 by Lord Boston and it worked till flooded out in the late 1868, a 240hp steam engine was installed both to drain the mine and to raise the coal to the surface. The remains include the engine house, a possible boiler house, and a fine chimney stack. The site of the shaft itself lies close to these structural remains. The ruinous domestic and working ranges of a small farmstead are situated immediately adjacent to the colliery. The row of farmstead cottages and sheds on the site were built when the colliery was still in operation and remained in used until the 1980s.

 

Known collieries

Berw Colliery, Llanidan, Map Ref: SH 464725 owned in 1869 by the Anglesey Coal Co.

Berw Uchaf Colliery, Llanidan (also called Tai Hirion Colliery)

Dafarn Newydd Colliery, Llangristiolus

Esgeifiog Mine (coal), Anglesey

Gaerwen Syndicate Coal Trials, Llanidan

Glanymorfa Colliery, Anglesey

Glantraeth Colliery, Trefdraeth

Gwaithglo Colliery

Holland Arms Colliery, Llanfinhangel, Esgeifiog. Map Ref: SH 469730

Llangeinwen Colliery, Llangeinwen

Malltraeth Bay Colliery, Trefdraeth

Maltraeth March Colliery, Trefdraeth, Map Ref: SH 416690

Marquis Colliery, Llanidan, Map Ref: SH 424700

Menai Colliery, Trefdraeth

Morfa Mawr Colliery, Llangafo, Map Ref: SH 454716

Nant Colliery, Anglesey

Nantporth Colliery, Anglesey

Nineveh Colliery, Anglesey

Paradwys Mine (coal) Anglesey

Pencrug Colliery, Llangristiolus, Map Ref: SH 426708

Penrhyn Mawr Colliery, Anglesey

Pentre Berw Colliery, Anglesey was opened around 1815 and worked mainly from shafts up to 130 yards deep.
Pont Marquis Colliery, Trefdraeth  Pont/Bont Marquis owner in 1869 and 1880 Richard Griffiths

Taecroesion Colliery, Anglesey

Tanyrallt Colliery, Llangristiolus

Trefdraeth Colliery, Trefdraeth

Tyddyn Mawr colliery is considered to be a good surviving seventeenth century example.

Tyn Y Fflat Colliery, Trefdraeth, Map Ref: SH 418697

Most of the collieries worked the seams via shafts. The seams are overlaid by very wet strata. Water pumping problems was the usual reason for the failure of these pits. http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/forum/read.php?6,17904