Dolgarrog
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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 village is served by Dolgarrog railway station.
Contents
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1 History
o 1.1 The legend of Y Carrog
o 1.2 The Black Death
o 1.3 The Gunpowder Plot
2 Industry
o 2.1 The aluminium works
3 Dam Disaster
4 Garden Art
5 External links
[edit] History
The shops at Dolgarrog
Dolgarrog Halt, on the Conwy Valley line, located across the river
[edit] The legend of Y Carrog
Believed to have been established around 1200 AD, Dolgarrog is said to have got its name
from a flying dragon called Y Carrog. This mythical beast preyed on livestock and Dol-ycarrog 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.
[edit] The Black Death
In the 1350s the Black Death 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.
[edit] The Gunpowder Plot
A man privy to Guy Fawkes' 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, Llanbedry-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. [1]
[edit] Industry
Dolgarrog power station, located next to the Aluminium Works
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.
[edit] The aluminium works
The aluminium works (or "smelter") was originally planned in 1895. Water from reservoirs 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.
[edit] Dam Disaster
The incline up to the Eigiau Tramway, adjacent to the pipeline
An engine being taken up the Dolgarrog incline to the Eigiau Tramway. Some of this
timberwork still exists today.
The breach in Llyn Eigiau dam, showing the gully cut by the flood water. (A second,
different breach was later deliberately made in the main wall to prevent it happening again.)
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.
[edit] Garden Art
Commenced in 2001, Garden Art is a local business that brings together both tasteful and
unusual antique and contemporary garden statuary, tubs, architectural antiques, and specimen
plants, all of which are displayed within a 10-acre (40,000 m2) site in the natural beauty of
the Snowdonia National Park in Wales. As well as selling all kinds of sculptures, it also
claims to have the "World's Largest Hedge Maze" covering over 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land.
Dolgarrog & Dam Disaster (1925)
Sunnyfield Image Library (Mike & Ruth Day)
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Old Postcards
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Aluminium Corps Fire Service Members
Small Photos
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