Historical background
A mining complex, possibly bronze age in origin and almost
certainly medieval, but actively exploited from 1768 to the
early twentieth century. Remains include a miners' village,
now largely deserted, dating from c. 1830. The farmhouse
at Drws y Coed Isaf is traditionally associated with the Moravian
connection, and with the Griffith family. Drws y Coed farm
was owned by Vaynol, and other lands in this area formed part
of the Garnons estate.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Industrial remains (adits, tips, dam), relict archaeology,
settlement
There is considerable relict industrial archaeology, including
a largely deserted village (SH 5414 5341), believed to date
from the 1830s, made up of two-room single-storey dwellings,
identified by Jeremy Lowe as exemplifying an important early
stage in the evolution of industrial housing. These have been
recommended for scheduling but are mostly roofless and in poor
condition. Water-supply systems, extraction points and processing
sites associated with the mines, dating from the mid eighteenth-century
to the early twentieth, survive in a number of locations; some
of these are scheduled. These include the eighteenth-nineteenth
century Fronfelen workings at SH 5441 5339. These survive as
elements in a landscape that is partly industrial, partly agricultural.
The area also contains a major prehistoric hut circle settlement
(also scheduled), situated on a ledge above the valley floor
near the end of the valley, a situation mirrored locally in
Nant Gwynant, although there are no obvious field system remains
connected with this.
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Landscape Character Map
