Situated in a small bay near to Amlwch on the island of Anglesey stands the remains of Porth Wen Brickworks.
Built in the late Victorian period, in a rather remote part of the island, this facility produced fire bricks made of quartz, a substance readily found and quarried here. Fire bricks are able to with stand far greater temperatures than clay bricks and were used to line furnaces used in the production of steel.
(Source)[http://www.penmorfa.com/porthwen/history.htm]
It was suggested the best time to visit is at low tide, when the remnants of the loading harbour wall can still be seen.
dickhead here went at high tide.
I have enough problems working out what day it is never mind the phases of the moon.
It was suggested that the easiest route is along a coastal path
dickhead here chose a little slip and slide adventure from the headland down through the gorse bushes, hoping to find the old quarry head winding gear that fed the works.
That was a massive mistake,
gorse bushes are more vicious than brambles.
Most of the buildings that are still standing were built at the turn of the 20th century.
Never a massive success even under the Germanic ownership of Herr Steibel,his failure to invest and modernise saw him sell as a going concern in 1906 to a Mr Charles Tidy.
Production ceased just before WW1 and the plant remained idle until a further attempt to make it a success commenced in 1924. Only to be finally shut down in 1949, and has remained so since.
The beehive kilns where the bricks were fired
Three coal fired boilers to generate the sites’ energy requirements
The remains of a steam engine and random engineering bits gently rusting away
Mr. Tidy struggled, access was a big problem for the works. A small harbour was built, from where the bricks could be loaded on to cargo ships, but the tides and the rocky seabed caused issues and there were many incidents with the loaded ships. The smaller vessels often battered while in the bay, caused a lot of owners concerns and they refused to transport the bricks due to the possible risks for their vessels and seafarers.
So now it’s time for me to struggle back up through this lot and a forest of gorse bushes.
Happy days