Blaenau-Ffestiniog, United Kingdom

Quarrying grew fast in the earlier 19th century. Notable quarries opened at Llechwedd, Maenofferen and Votty & Bowydd, while Turner and Casson's Diphwys Casson flourished. Further off, Cwmorthin and Wrysgan quarries were dug to the south of the town, while at the head of Cwm Penmachno to the north-east, a series of quarries started at Rhiwbach, Cwt y Bugail and Blaen y Cwm. To the south-east another cluster worked the slopes of Manod Mawr. The workforce for these was drawn initially from nearby towns and villages such as Ffestiniog and Maentwrog. Before the arrival of railways, travel to the quarries was difficult and workers' houses were built nearby. These typically grew up round existing farms and roads between them. An early settlement was at Rhiwbryfdir, for the Oakeley and Llechwedd quarries. As early as 1801, new roads were built specifically for the quarries. By 1851, there were 3,460 people living in the new town of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

During the 1860s and 1870s, the boom in the slate industry fed the nascent town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. It gained its first church and first school and saw much ribbon development along its roads. The Old Market Hall, which also served as the town hall, was completed in 1864. By 1881, its population had reached 11,274. In the 1890s, the slate industry experienced a sharp decline. A number of quarries lost money for the first time, and several failed entirely, including Cwmorthin and Nyth-y-Gigfran.

The slate industry recovered only partly from the recession of the 1890s. Many quarrymen joined the armed force in World War I and production fell. There was a short post-war boom, but the long-term trend was towards mass-produced tiles and cheaper slate sourced from Spain. Oakeley Quarry took over Cwmorthin, Votty & Bowydd and Diphwys Casson, while Llechwedd acquired Maenofferen. Despite that consolidation, the decline continued. World War II brought a further loss of workforce. In 1946, the Ffestiniog Railway closed.

In August 1945, the secluded farmhouse of Bwlch Ocyn at Manod, belonging to Clough Williams-Ellis, became the home of the writer Arthur Koestler and his wife Mamaine for three years. While there, Koestler became a close friend of his fellow writer George Orwell.

The remaining quarries served by the Rhiwbach Tramway closed in the 1950s and 1960s. Oakeley closed in 1970, with the loss of many jobs. The quarry re-opened in 1974 on a much smaller scale and continued to be worked until 2010. Maenofferen and Llechwedd continued, but Maenofferen finally closed in 1998. Llechwedd is still a working quarry, working the David Jones part of Maenofferen (level two-and-a-half).

As the slate industry shrank, so did the population of the community of Ffestiniog, which fell to 4,875 in 2011. Tourism became the town's largest employer, with the development of Gloddfa Ganol in the Oakeley quarry and the slate caverns at Llechwedd quarry. The revived Ffestiniog Railway and the slate caverns remain popular attractions, as does the Antur Stiniog downhill mountain-biking centre and, more recently, the Zip World Titan zip-line site, which includes the Bounce Below slate-mine activity centre.