Former quarry hospital

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Former quarry hospital, Padarn country park

The owners of the extensive Dinorwig slate quarry built this hospital in 1860, partly out of concern for the welfare of their employees but also to reduce the time employees would miss from their work if they had to travel to the hospital in Bangor and back. Some accidents left men unable to work again, others involved injuries such as bone fractures or loss of fingers.

The hospital replaced an earlier one near Allt Ddu and had its own operating theatre for surgical procedures such as amputation. In 1900 it was one of the first British hospitals to receive an X-ray machine, which is one of the exhibits in the museum now occupying the building. It ceased to function as a hospital after the National Health Service’s formation in 1948, continuing as a first aid centre until the quarry closed in 1969.

The second supervisor here, Dr Thomas Hughes, commuted to the hospital along a lane which led down the hill from his house, Hafoty. The lane, still visible in the woods, became known as the 'Doctor's Road'.

In 1890 Robert Mills-Roberts (1862-1935) became the hospital’s surgeon. He hailed from Penmachno, near Betws-y-coed. He had played football (as goalkeeper) for Aberystwyth University, and joined Preston North End in 1888. In that season the club won the championship without losing any matches. The following year he was a member of the Preston team which won the FA Cup. He played for Wales eight times. In his late 30s, he served as a British Army medic in the Boer War and the First World War.

Like other doctors here, his appointment was under the control of the quarry management. Dr Mills Roberts was not an entirely independent witness at official inquiries. He had data showing that lung diseases were much more common in quarrymen than in other men. He sent the figures to the quarry manager in 1893 with the advice to “sit on them”.

He lived for several years in the Pendraw community, at the western edge of the quarry, and ran Red Cross classes in Llanberis. Several women who attended went on to work in military hospitals in the First World War. One of them, Jennie Williams, died of pneumonia in early 1919 at the French hospital where she had worked. Click here for our page in her memory.

Doctors from the surgery in the village also helped to treat injured quarrymen, as you can read on our page about Coed Doctor.

Sources include ‘The North Wales Quarrymen 1874-1922’ by R Merfyn Jones, University of Wales Press, 1981

Postcode: LL55 4TY    View Location Map

Website of Padarn country park

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