Villagers had to simply move.
Nestled in the far western corner of the UK lies a small village with approximately 2,000 residents. Surrounded by spectacular natural beauty, it initially seems unremarkable and indistinguishable from countless other villages across the nation.
However, what sets this village apart from nearly all others is that it doesn’t occupy its original site. In reality, it was relocated here entirely from a position slightly eastward roughly a century ago. The remnants of its former location, including cottages and even a villa, remain visible, with one explorer going so far as to call the site a “Welsh Angkor Wat”.
The forced removal of entire Welsh communities to construct reservoirs supplying England’s cities with water continues to stir strong emotions in Wales today. Arguably the most notorious example is the village of Capel Celyn, which was evacuated and subsequently flooded to create a reservoir providing water to Liverpool.
However, water wasn’t the sole reason villages were moved or disappeared entirely. The explosive expansion of the slate industry during the 19th century also impacted whole communities, each possessing their own distinct identity and heritage, reports the Express.
One such village was Talysarn, which found itself poorly positioned as slate mining spread throughout Snowdonia in north-west Wales. Gradually, a mosaic of small quarries in the Dyffryn Nantlle valley were absorbed into larger enterprises such as the formidable Dorothea quarry, which proved so important that it has since been designated a World Heritage Site.
Whether contemporary recognition of its globally-significant status would offer any comfort to the villagers displaced from their homes and relocated a kilometre west is debatable. Nevertheless, they established new roots and the village continues as a stronghold of the Welsh language, just as it was during the early 20th century. In 1927, the village’s road was also relocated south, although remnants of what locals call Yr Hen Lon (Welsh for “the old road”) remain visible today.
Several original village structures continued to serve the quarry and their remains can still be observed. These included Plas Talysarn, a country house constructed in the 18th century and subsequently extended into a Victorian villa. The remarkable location draws visitors from across the country.
Among them is photographer Tony Harnett, who operates the Gems of Snowdonia website showcasing the “hidden treasures” of the national park. Tony provided his photographs to North Wales Live and revealed his astonishment at his discoveries in Dorothea.
“I’d seen photos of Plas Talysarn and knew it was an interesting place,” he said. “But I thought that’s all there was. When I went there, I did not expect to find so many other old buildings in the area. Some I just stumbled across, others I could see in the distance but didn’t have time to visit. I arrived late in the day, for the golden hour for photography, so I only had two hours there. But I could easily have stayed for the whole day, there’s so much to explore. “.
Photographer and author of Wild Guide Wales, Daniel Start, has likened what survives of the ruins today to a “Welsh Angkor Wat”.
“Only the baboons are missing,” he writes. “It’s a vast, wild site with many fascinating, overgrown ruins, including a Cornish beam engine and the overgrown remains of the chapel at Plas Talysarn.”
In its prime, the grand residence of Plas Talysarn was truly remarkable. It boasted a fountain, a 21st birthday gift for the daughter of the Robinson family who owned the property and travelled by stagecoach. An old track behind the house, formerly the Nantlle horse tramway (which continued to use horses until the early 1960s), now leads to a bridge to nowhere and more walled enclosures.
A large lodge house and an assortment of other buildings were situated nearby. The remnants of one structure are believed to be a gothic chapel or folly.
All these structures, nestled in the damp woodland, are now covered in moss, entwined with vines, and adorned with graffiti, enhancing the feeling of desertion.
Plas Talysarn remained in the Robinson family’s possession until 1905 when it was sold to a quarry company. Local residents remember that it was last inhabited in 1946 and was ultimately deserted when a landslip brought Dorothea uncomfortably close.
Close by is the entrance to what used to be a stable block and kennels, later converted into a shower block for the quarrymen. A former boiler house, now largely roofless, still houses two decaying Lancashire boilers. Other surrounding structures are draped in moss and tree roots.
Like numerous other quarry sites, output declined substantially following the outbreak of the Second World War. The quarry was ultimately shut down in 1970. Dorothea Quarry has long been submerged with the lake exceeding 100m in depth in certain areas.
The location is now included within the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, which was designated by Unesco in July 2021.
How the village came to be abandoned
This tale stretches back 500 million years to the formation of an extensive belt of Cambrian slate between two valleys in north Wales. Some of the largest and most prolific slate quarries globally were located along this belt and the area was reputed to have “roofed the 19th century world”.
Slate was to north Wales what coal represented to the south. There were numerous small and independent quarries in the vicinity owned by various landowners.
Mergers and acquisitions over the years established larger quarries like Dorothea, which commenced operations in 1820 and continued production until 1970.
By the 1840s, the principal extraction levels at Dorothea appeared promising for the future but it was confronting severe flooding challenges and in 1884 several workers perished when the pit was inundated.
As the quarries of the Nantlle Valley kept expanding it was determined that the village of Talysarn would be moved to the west where it stands today and is home to just under 2,000 residents.
The village was also at the centre of a spy plot
In January 1982, a couple residing near Talysarn observed unusual activity in the red telephone box opposite their home.
At that time, detectives and other agencies were on the hunt for those behind the arson attacks on holiday homes in Wales.
Eifionwen and Moses Edwards became intrigued when they spotted two unfamiliar faces in a white car making repeated visits to the area near their home, which overlooked the phone box, on January 6, 1982. They watched as the two men placed something inside the phone box.
After the men had left, the couple decided to investigate. Moses Edwards recounted to reporters at the time that he discovered an object resembling a walkie talkie in the box: “Something like a policeman would use,” he described.
However, as he was returning to his house, the car sped back down the country lane.
“One of the men got out and said ‘I’ll take it back. I’m working for the GPO’,” he recalled. During that period, the GPO (General Post Office) managed telephone services across Britain.
But Mr Edwards wasn’t convinced, and when local police attempted to trace the car’s registration number, they were obstructed by the Home Office. Lord Dafydd Wigley, the local MP at the time, has previously reminisced about the incident, stating that the men “claimed to be telephone engineers” but were in fact “secret agents W.H.O. were not associated with the local constabulary [and were] acting without authority”.
