The former north Wales counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Merionethshire have more than 8000 known mine and quarry sites. These range from the large historic copper mines of Parys mountain on Anglesey to individual trial levels and small roadside gravel pits. The general extent and distribution of these sites can be seen from the map (click on map to see larger version).
This web site provides an on-line searchable version of the late Jeremy Wilkinson’s Gazetteer and Bibliography of these mines and quarries. The gazetteer currently has entries for more than 4,670 documented mine, quarry and other site names plus entries for more than 4,300 other sites (unnamed levels, pits, quarries, shafts etc.) identified from historic maps. Alternative names of sites are cross-referenced. Supporting these data is a bibliography of more than 40,000 references and notes. Details are provided of more than 1200 limited companies and more than 6,500 other companies and individuals are named.
The Gazetteer and Bibliography was originally compiled over a considerable number of years by Jeremy Wilkinson from Public Record Office and other sources of public record. He used the data and a set of BASIC programs to create a database, initially on a BBC B computer and later on PCs.
Following an initial conversation in June 2002, Wilkinson asked Dave Linton to produce an online version and subsequently provided him with copies of his files plus his hand-written notes and other photocopyed material. Linton modified file names, formats and some data codings to simplify maintenance and reduce file sizes. Duplicated data were eliminated and minor corrections made. Linton’s files and their data formats were documented to support future maintenance.
Linton used his versions of Wilkinson’s files and his own programs to produce the gazetteer and bibliography of mines and quarries in north Wales and the persons and companies associated with the mining and quarrying, plus a list of relevant Crown Grants. Cross-references that lead to additional information to that currently displayed are presented as links.
In addition, references to further secondary sources have been added as in many cases these are more accessible than the primary sources.
Subsequent to the above work on the mines and quarries of north Wales, more than 12,000 sites in south and mid-Wales have been added to Gazetteer. Biliographical information from David Bick’s The Old Metal Mines of Mid Wales, George Hall’s Metal Mines of Southern Wales and other sources has been added.
Additions and corrections to the data have been and will continue to be incorporated as further information becomes available. Submissions of such information will be welcomed.
Detailed information about Wilkinson’s data and subsequent changes and additions to it can be found on the Gazetteer Data page.
The Gazetteer and Bibliography consists of an entry for those mine and quarry sites recorded in Wales before c. 1910. Each entry includes, where available, the following information:
In addition, some post-1910 mines (mainly coal mines in south Wales) have been included.
Searches can be made by site name, location (specified as place name, grid reference, latitude/longitude or postcode), product, county, parish, or any combination of these.
The results can be displayed as a list of site names and summary information, full gazetteer details or as locations (where known) on a map.
See example entry or search the Gazetteer
There is also a list of Crown Grants with, again where available, the following information:
See example entry or search the Crown Grants
Finally, there is an alphabetical list of persons, companies and organisations who were associated with the mines and quarries or who were Crown Grantees. It contains the following information:
See example entry or search the persons, companies and organisations
A list of significant changes made made to the information in these files and the programs used to display them can be found in the change log (last updated 27 April 2024).
Technical information can be found in the READ ME file.
The Mines and Quarries of North Wales data and search results are Copyright © the estate of the late Jeremy Wilkinson 2004. Web design, additions and corrections to data and all code is Copyright © David Linton 2020.
The gazetteer incorporates data from:
You may:
Jeremy Wilkinson’s work in researching and collecting this data was considerable and the mining history community owes him a signifcant debt. This is evident by the number of times his contribution is acknowledged in various mining, quarrying and railway history books. In addition, the suggestion that the information be made public on the World Wide Web came from him. As well as his data files mentioned above, Jeremy also passed on to me his index cards, various notes and correspondence, photocopies of HM Mines Inspectors’ reports and his collection of OS six-inch county maps on microfilm.
In addition, I acknowledge the following authors and institutions who have provided specific help with this project:
I also thank everyone who has helped with this project in any way and in particular by acting as test users on their own computers, reporting errors and anomalies in the data and/or providing suggestions for improvements.
Finally, I acknowledge the large amount of work to document Welsh mining and quarrying history by authors such as John Bennett, David Bick, Roger Burt and his co-authors, Chris Down, Cris Ebbs, James Robert Foster-Smith, David Gwyn, George Hall, Simon Hughes, Graham Isherwood, David James, Griff Jones, Michael Lewis, Dan Quine, Alun Richards, Rob Vernon and Chris Williams.
Submissions of new information, corrections, technical queries and queries about copyright and terms and conditions of use should be made to Dave Linton, dave.linton@hendrecoed.org.uk, telephone 01341 280901