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Welsh Slate and Porthmadog‘s The Cob Toll House

Welsh Slate has a history that is far too long to talk about here in full except to say that its usefulness as an excellent building product has been recognised since Roman Times.

With the abolishment by the government, of duty on Welsh Slate in 1831 and then in 1832 there was an act of Parliament forming the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways.

Twenty years earlier W A Maddocks built a sea wall (cob) to allow people to travel between London and Dublin scuppered only because to Thomas Telford’s Menai bridge to Anglesey which was only started in in 1819 and is another story.  W A Maddock though lives on in the towns name as Porthmadog was originally known as Port Madoc.

So a readymade harbour close to sources of Welsh Slate Port Madoc became a major slate shipping port.

The Cob Toll House, now called Bridge Cottage, was the toll house from 1811 but around 1900 was adapted as an office for the Parc and Croesor slate quarries and clad in slate to show off their products.

Welsh Slate and Porthmadog‘s The Cob Toll House

Now that is what you call a show house in the ideal location. Opposite the rail yard that brought slate from the mountain quarries and at the entrance to the then incredibly busy harbour whose main goods being shipped was Welsh slate.  As mentioned it was an office for Parc and Croesor quarries but many other quarries all of which shipped around not only Wales but across the world.   

Back to the slate on the Cob Toll House. The cladding and roofing match, regular slate courses alternating with hexagonal patterns. Also seen are the interlocking ridge and hip tiles devised by Moses Kellow, the manager of the Parc and Croesor quarries.

With thanks to @RCAHMWales and their historic homes series for images and some of the text.

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