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Description
Drawn by Falcon Hildred
Rhosydd drum house to Croesor incline, 2003
Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper, 30 x 42 cm
This drawing captures the extraordinary synergy in the slate quarrying landscape between the natural rock and man-made slate structures. However, the artist himself says it is not possible to capture the cliff-edge vertigo of such a location, let alone the feeling of building such structures in it. Rhosydd quarry sent its slates to Porthmadog on the horse-drawn Croesor tramway, and its own tramway passed across the precipitous head of Cwm Croesor to the head of the steepest quarry incline in Wales. Built in 1864, the incline was designed with a catenary profile by Charles Spooner, and fell 205 metres; the steepest part at the top had a gradient of 46 degrees. The site was so restricted that the rope drum had to be placed 17 metres above the incline brow, with the brakes controlled by cables and a ship's wheel fastened to the large horizontal slab.
Ref. FHA 01_175_03
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