History
Blaenau Ffestiniog is known as the Victorian slate capital of the world, with around 10 mines in the town alone during its heyday. The site of Blaenau Ffestiniog was nothing more than pasture land before the industrial revolution. The town started after slate was discovered there. Railways, churches, schools, houses, shops, and a hospital were all built to accommodate the growing population. After the Second World War the demand for slate fell and the town now relies on tourism. Blaenau Ffestiniog hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1898. It is part of the traditional county of Merionethshire. Locals divide Blaenau Ffestiniog into "areas" - among these are Tanygrisiau, Rhiwbryfdir, Bethania, Dolrhedyn, Glanpwll, Cwmbowydd and Manod. In this context "Blaenau Ffestiniog" is sometimes used to refer only to the centre of town.
Read more about this topic: Blaenau Ffestiniog
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passé abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)