PORTHMADOG was once host to a wide variety of industries, and author John Idris Jones has been exploring three of them: slate extraction and export; sailing ship manufacture, and locomotive and rolling stock engineering.

As a child, John spent time at his grandparents’ house in Borth-y-Gest.

Here he witnessed the active port, the remains of the slate industry and the Ffestiniog Railway.

Using an interesting collection of images and drawing on his background in the area, John has put together the history of these indusries in the town in ‘Slate, Sail and Steam - A History of the Industries Of Porthmadog’.

“This book is about people taking control of their own destiny,” John explains.

“These people invested their determination, skills and money into businesses which sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed.

“Individuals who start businesses are set on improving their lives financially and socially. When these businesses expand, they require workers, and their wages flow through their families to the advantage of their community and society.

“This process was particularly striking in the Porthmadog area in the early part of the nineteenth century.

“In 1790 it was an area of poor land, with no settlements and virually no employment.

“By the 1830s it was completely changed.”

John explains how large-scale slate quarrying had started in nearby Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Multiple shipbuilding, driven by the need to transport the slate by sea, was growing on the seashores in and around Porthmadog.

Transport from Blaenau Ffestiniog down to the port at Porthmadog was provided by the Ffestiniog Railway Company.

See the full article in this week’s Arfon/Dwyfor edition of the Cambrian News