During the nineteenth century, Penygroes became a thriving centre of the Nantlle Valley slate industry. Quarries were cut deep into the valley and surrounding hillsides, transforming the landscape and shaping the lives of the people who lived and worked there. Drawn by employment opportunities in the nearby quarries, workers and their families settled in the area, creating a close-knit community built upon hard work, resilience and a strong connection to the land.
The success of the slate industry relied upon an extensive transport network. Slate was carried from the quarries by tramways and, later, by rail, linking Penygroes to ports along the North Wales coast. From there, ships transported Welsh slate across Britain and Ireland, supplying roofing materials to rapidly growing towns and cities. These routes connected a relatively remote rural community to international markets, making Penygroes part of a wider story of industry, trade and innovation.
Today, the legacy of this industry remains embedded within the landscape. The quarries, transport routes and settlements that grew around them stand as reminders of a period when the Nantlle Valley played a significant role in shaping the built environment of Britain and beyond. The slate, the skills of the quarrymen, and the networks that carried their products far from home all form an important part of Penygroes’ identity.
Blondins: Engineering the Quarry Landscape
The name "Blondin" originates from Charles Blondin, the famous nineteenth-century tightrope walker whose daring performances captured the public imagination. In the slate quarries of the Nantlle Valley, however, the term referred to something very different: an ingenious system of suspended cables used to transport materials across difficult terrain.
Blondins were a specialised form of aerial ropeway designed to carry heavy loads across vast quarry workings and between different levels of extraction. These systems enabled slate and waste material to be moved efficiently across spaces that would otherwise have been impossible to navigate. Suspended high above the quarry floor, they became a familiar and striking feature of the industrial landscape.
Used in quarries such as Pen-yr-Orsedd and Dorothea, Blondins played a vital role in maintaining the efficiency and productivity of slate extraction. They represent a remarkable example of the engineering innovation that underpinned the Welsh slate industry, demonstrating how technology was adapted to meet the unique challenges of the rugged quarry environment.
Angharad Pearce Jones: Reimagining the Blondins
The Blondin sculptures were designed artist Angharad Pearce Jones. Originally from Bala, her work is deeply influenced by the industrial and cultural landscapes of North Wales, exploring the relationship between people, place and the industries that have shaped local identities.
Constructed from weathering Corten steel, the sculptures celebrate the distinctive forms and sculptural qualities of the original Blondin systems. Rather than functioning as literal replicas, they offer a contemporary interpretation of the cableways that once criss-crossed the quarries. Their elegant structural forms evoke the cables, pulleys and suspended movement that were once an essential part of everyday life in the slate industry.
For generations, Blondins would have been a familiar sight to communities throughout the Nantlle Valley. Through these artworks, Angharad brings these remarkable structures back into public view, encouraging visitors to engage with a lesser-known aspect of the area's industrial heritage. The sculptures act as both landmarks and points of reflection, inviting audiences to consider the ingenuity, labour and human stories that shaped the quarry landscape.
By reconnecting the present-day community with the engineering achievements of the past, the sculptures create a dialogue between history and contemporary art. They stand as powerful reminders of the rich industrial heritage of the Nantlle Valley and of the enduring relationship between landscape, industry and cultural identity.