Afon Dwyryd Quays

Before Porthmadog existed slates quarried at Blaenau Ffestiniog were carried by small sailing vessels from quays on the Afon Dwyryd to an anchorage close to Ynys Cyngar near the bar at the mouth of the Glaslyn where they were transhipped into larger sailing vessels for onward carriage. The sailors of these little barges were known locally as "Philistines".

In fact, before the quays were built on the Dwyryd the Philistines beached their boats on the banks of the river.

The slates reached the Dwyryd's banks by pack horses (actually donkeys and ponies) from the quarries. Over the years the quarry owners had to spend money to improve the pack horse routes. Once the lower flatter levels of the Vale of Ffestiniog were reached the slates were transferred into carts drawn by horses for the next 6 miles or so to the quays at Gelli Grin on the South bank of the River and Trwyn Garnedd Wharf on the North. Many trips for a pony or donkey were required to move one ton of slate but once it was in the carts it was one ton, one cart one man - an order of magnitude cheaper. The cost of broken slates in getting them into outward bound ships at Porthmadog was a significant factor in the economic case for building the FR. The old route via the Dwyryd involved a precarious ride in paniers and transhipment three times (pack animal to cart, cart to barge and barge to ship). Using the FR the slates could be packed in a waggon in the quarry and unloaded at Porthmadog straight into a sea going ship.

The quays were below the bridge at Maentwrog on the North and South banks of the river. These quays were used by some quarry owners until 1860 which was long after the railway opened in 1836. The first quays at Portmadog were ready for use by ships by 1824 so there was a long period of 36 years when both the Blaenau - Dwyryd and Blaenau - Porthmadog routes were in use. Hughes Describes the competition between the two routes thus:

"The little boats of the Philistines, undaunted and determined, swarmed into a new harbour, loaded with their cargoes. They fought the intruding railway tooth and nail. My grandfather born in 1825, himself a spirited Dwyrydian, remembered the battle raging as late as 1845; in fact he took an active part in it. Of the 40,000 tons then shipped from the estuary, the Dwyryd claimed to have handled the greater part. The occasion provided an imposing contest between the old-world methods and the new, with the new emerging victorious as time went on."

The centre of the early development of shipping in Porthmadog was Towyn (now Ynys Tywyn) the site of the now Britannia Terrace. In the early years the transport of slate in larger vessels was largely achieved by loading it onto flat bottomed sailing barges at the Dwyrwd quays and transhipping it into the larger vessels at Porthmadog. Before that it was transhipped at Ynys Cyngar near the mouth of Traeth Mawr and close to the bar. Plate 1 in Immortal Sails shows small boats loading slates at Pen Trywyn Garnedd and Gelli Grin on the Afon Dwyryd.

References

More info & pictures to be added.