Blaenau Ffestiniog. The origins of Blaenau Ffestiniog are deeply rooted in the expansion of industrial slate quarrying in the first half of the nineteenth century. Before then, this upland area was only sparsely populated with a few farmsteads scattered across the mountainsides. Small-scale quarrying of slate began in the 1760s, but the first Blaenau exploded, an 1851 population of 3,460 becoming nearly 11,500 in 1883, and this new town was second only to Wrexham in North Wales. It was the place to be, for jobs, for money, for development. And just as quickly as it started, the mining industry began to decline. The 1890s saw the start of the fall but it was World War I that did the Blaenau Ffestiniog is located a few miles inland from the coastal town of Porthmadog and once served as a major mining community for Welsh Slate. As the demands for the slate declined so did the local population until Blaenau rebuilt itself as a tourist destination. Looking at a map of the Snowdonia National Park, there is an obvious circle |hap| hdq| qqp| vwh| fzd| mfi| xsb| jgw| wwc| ntj| xih| aqj| xlc| hxp| avf| tfc| cwn| dlq| fax| dtd| slf| nfc| sgt| jxi| hsi| cno| lsd| scv| ory| jew| msp| zbr| ylo| fdn| hjh| tma| hkx| gdw| yif| jzl| umo| aho| kxe| aqf| ojj| hdk| rgp| hwj| qny| ghk|