Abergynolwyn

Abergynolwyn 1895	Abergynolwyn 1995

Abergynolwyn is the terminus for the Tal-y-llyn railway. Originally a village built for the nearby slate quarries at Bryneglwys, which closed in 1946.

Before the 19th century Abergynolwyn was just two small hamlets, Pandy and Cwrt

Abergynolwyn, pictured here did not exist as a village until mid 1860’s when the Aberdovey Slate Company built 70 houses including those in Llanegryn Street. The road in the pictureon the right above is Llanegryn Street, with number 20 on the right hand side; across the road (where new houses have been built now) was a field that the Pugh’s would probably have rented part of, at one farthing a square yard, for use as an allotment and to keep pigs. Multi map ariel shot

The Pugh family were very much a “church” not “Chapel” family. Such was religous fervour that the village had at one time 3 chapels and one angican church. artond the 1860's around 80% of the village were chapel. Angicanism was said to be strong among the gentry, the middle classes and those with aspirations to middle class status.

The village school was built in 1883 to take 180 children.The first headmaster was Mr J Thomas and there were 4 classes in the school. Chalk and slate were used to write lessons, most of which were in English. Today the school looks the same on the outside, but has only 18 children and most lessons are in Welsh.

By the end of the 19th century, the Bryneglwys Slate mine employed most of the men and boys in the village

The village was closely tied to the fortunes of the slate quarry, in 1894 a man could earn £1 13s 2½ d for a five day week. The year after Evans birth in 1896 the village was connected for the first time to the telegraph, this was to coincide with Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee and the quarry owners gave each worker two gold sovereigns. These coins are worth 22 shilling each then but £59 each today.

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