THE GREAT LITTLE TRAINS OF WORLD HERITAGE
Seventy years ago, the Talyllyn Railway led the world by becoming the first heritage line to be operated by volunteers, and three years later the Ffestiniog Railway reopened by similar means.
On July 28, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) announced that a bid to designate the slate landscape of North West Wales as a World Heritage Site – in which both lines were included – had been successful, as reported last issue as we closed for press.
Led by Gwynedd Council, the inscribing of the prestigious status is the culmination of more than 15 years of graft by partners including Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government, the National Museum of Wales, the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales, Bangor University, the National Trust, the Slate Wales Partnership and Snowdonia National Park Authority to prepare the bid record, and safeguard and recognise the heritage of its slate landscape.
What is Britain’s 32nd World Heritage Site (and the fourth in Wales) officially comprises Penrhyn slate quarry, Bethesda and the Ogwen Valley to Port Penrhyn; Dinorwic (or Dinorwig) slate quarry mountain landscape; Nantlle Valley slate quarry landscape; Gorseddau and Prince of Wales slate quarries, railways and mill; Blaenau Ffestiniog’s slate mines, quarries, the ‘city of slates’ and the railway to Porthmadog, Bryneglwys slate quarry, Abergynolwyn village and the Talyllyn Railway. The status now places the slate region in the same elite global group as Egypt’s pyramids, Peru’s Machu Picchu, India’s Taj Mahal, the
