THIS PLACE IS MID DEMOLITION (Late July '11)
If you want to see it, be quick. See pics 3 & 4
If you want to see it, be quick. See pics 3 & 4
After our mixed results at Llanberis Bomb Store and conscious of the fact sim2lew had to be back very soon, we decided to head back, but not before trying one more site. On the way up to Llanberis we'd spotted the two jetty's that stand out in the Irish Sea, the eastern one looked so forlorn we decided to pay it a visit, you know, see if we could cheer it up
I'll let ex0 take up the story from here:
So anyway we headed back here in the afternoon on the way home, originally planning to enter from the A55 above the site we had to abandon this plan due to traffic and airborne pinecone related dangers.
Despite assertions to the contrary, these pine cone related dangers came in the form of Mr. ex0 sitting on the opposite side of a fence, lobbing said pinecones at us in full view of local residents who where headed home. Said residents initially drove past, then stopped and reversed to do a double take. At this point we decided to get back in the car and GTFO!
So 30mins later we'd trolled through a static caravan site and ran along the coast (which was great fun, I'm sure others here can relate to running along coastal rock-barriers in their youth..) [Xan's addition: except for me as I'm a smoker and probably have to lung capacity of a gnat] till we got to the jetty. We had like 30mins to take pics before we needed to GTFO to get home so we had time to prepare for work/classes the next day! Hopefully we can revisit at some point and do the entire jetty and the rest of the site.
Fast forward two weeks later, ex0 and I are making plans to return. An hour and a half on the train isn't too bad, except we're only travelling about 60 miles! After arriving in Colwyn and trolling off the train we went through Colwyn in search of food. Looking at Google Maps, the nearest McDonalds is about an hour and a half walk (and this is a civilised country?!). Fuck that! We went into Bay View Shopping centre on the hunt and found Morrisons, not exactly win but close enough. After I stocked up on pasties and ex0 stocked up on sweet pastries and muffins we headed off to get the bus. This time we avoided pinecone related dangers and headed straight to silo building along the cycle path. That's where the pictures come in...
_______________HISTORY_______________
Taken from ex0's excellent Llanddulas report
Llanddulas Quarries have a history dating back to at least 1284 AD when the Bishop of Bangor was awarded the right to quarry the limestone from Llanddulas as a fee for christening the young King Edward I of England. Quarrying continues to this day and there is one active jetty a little further down the coast from this one.
This particular jetty (there have been at least 5) was built in 1940. Once the railway system was installed mining trucks hauled the limestone from the quarries via conveyer belt to a crusher and then moved down the jetty for unloading onto ships and then using a drum haulage system - empty carts were pulled up the track by full carts going down the opposite track - the mining trucks returned up the tracks ready to be refilled.
The jetty which is owned by Hanson Aggregates was closed in 1993 and has been rusting ever since.
A notice to anyone considering visiting this: There was a a sign attached to the crushing building notifying of intended demolition of the site including jetty and infrastructure. Get it while it's hot
_______________PICTURES_______________
[1]
This imposing building was built in 1940
[2]
Containing numerous silos
[3]
The old covered conveyor
[4]
From a different angle two weeks later
[5]
The conveyor area is quite dangerous
[6]
The raised conveyor
[7]
[8]
[9]
There are still some nice little features located round and about
With a tight squeeze we managed to access the upper level of the silo building
[10]
[11]
[12]
The jetty through the broken window
At this point we managed actually get up on the roof of the silo building, there's nothing much on the roof itself...
[13]
Except this
Oh, and the views!
[14]
Looking east towards Colwyn Bay
[15]
North, out to the jetty
[16]
Over to the west is Abergele and Rhyl
[17]
Back inside the silo building, a secondary conveyor
[18]
Razor wire on the jetty
[19]
They have to at least try and stop you...
[20]
[21]
It looks reasonable
[22]
Actually, it's rotten death on a stick!
[23]
[24]
The filling machine
[25]
[26]
The end...
[27]
Is reached
I normally wouldn't give such a site a large report, but as it's being demo'd I think it deserves to be remembered.
All the rest of my photos are available on my site, HERE
Thank for looking and I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen!
[1]
This imposing building was built in 1940
[2]
Containing numerous silos
[3]
The old covered conveyor
[4]
From a different angle two weeks later
[5]
The conveyor area is quite dangerous
[6]
The raised conveyor
[7]
[8]
[9]
There are still some nice little features located round and about
With a tight squeeze we managed to access the upper level of the silo building
[10]
[11]
[12]
The jetty through the broken window
At this point we managed actually get up on the roof of the silo building, there's nothing much on the roof itself...
[13]
Except this
Oh, and the views!
[14]
Looking east towards Colwyn Bay
[15]
North, out to the jetty
[16]
Over to the west is Abergele and Rhyl
[17]
Back inside the silo building, a secondary conveyor
[18]
Razor wire on the jetty
[19]
They have to at least try and stop you...
[20]
[21]
It looks reasonable
[22]
Actually, it's rotten death on a stick!
[23]
[24]
The filling machine
[25]
[26]
The end...
[27]
Is reached
I normally wouldn't give such a site a large report, but as it's being demo'd I think it deserves to be remembered.
All the rest of my photos are available on my site, HERE
Thank for looking and I hope you've enjoyed what you've seen!