Trefor stone quarry

[mareanna]

I have links of the ANTILL family from Mountsorrel in Leicestershire who moved to Trefor as quarrymen.  I would like to know more about the Welsh quarry and would love to hear from anyone with links to this name and WATERFIELD.

[Olly]

No info for you, but would have an interest in anything you find out because my granddad was born in Trefor in 1874.

He had moved to Liverpool by 1901. His name was Trevor Owen Jones.

Regards
Olly

[Keith]

This is from the Welsh Stone Forum Newsletter:

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/media/5/1/8/welsh_stone_forum_oct_04.pdf

Trefor Granite
The northern skyline of the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales is punctuated by a series of rugged and steep hills, which are formed from a series of medium-sized granite or, more strictly, granitoid intrusions. There are several, mainly disused quarries scattered around this vicinity but the Trefor granite is still exploited commercially as an ornamental stone.
The Trefor Granite Quarry is located on the north coast of Lleyn about 20 km SSW of Caernarfon, above the small village of Trefor, after which it takes its name. The quarry is accessed (with the permission of the owner) by a steep incline, which rises to a height of almost 150m above the village. It contains about six benches, each approximately 30-50 m high, which face north towards the sea. The total height of the quarry from the top to the bottom is about 300m (1000 feet) and quarrying has removed a considerable chunk of the mountain. Today, much of the quarry is redundant as volumetrically the demand for the stone is very small.
Like the numerous slate quarries, Trefor Quarry is part of the industrial heritage of north Wales. In the early part of the 19th century Samuel Holland, businessman and quarry owner, was heavily involved in the slate mining industry of north Wales. He had also opened up a quarry at Penmaenmawr to provide road surfacing and after some exploration around the granitoid intrusions of the Lleyn, he concluded that the Trefor granite was well suited for producing setts, which were in great demand in the burgeoning cities of the industrial revolution. He opened the quarry in the 1830s to supply this market and as a result a small village grew up at the base of the hill near the pier from which the rock was exported. It was named after Trefor Jones who was Holland’s first foreman at the quarry. Extraction of the granite for setts maintained the quarry through much of the 19th century but, inevitably as roads became paved with aggregate and tarmacadam, the demand subsequently declined.
Today Trefor Granite is famed for its use for curling stones. Indeed, it was Trefor Granite curling stones that were used in the last winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The quarry owner, Mr Trevor Davis, insists that Trefor Granite is superior to Eilsa Craig Granite, which was historically the most important rock for making curling stones. It is also used as an ornamental stone for walls, columns, fireplaces etc. The stone is brought down in large blocks from the quarry to the masons’ yard at Trefor where it is sliced up using a diamond wire saw and then cut to shape and size on demand in the workshop using cutting machines and stone lathes.
In the geological literature the Trefor Granite is referred to as The Garnfor Multiple Intrusions. This indicates that it is composed of several different types of granitoid rock, three types can be identified in the quarry. These are referred to by the quarrymen as pink, blue and grey granite, all of which are used for curling stones. The pink granite forms the core of the intrusion, at least in the higher levels of the quarry, and merges into the grey granite. The blue granite forms the margins of the overall structure and its boundary with the pink is quite sharp.
The granite is probably about 450 million years old and at the time of its formation this part of Wales was a volcanic province with an ocean to the north beyond which was Scotland. The setting was similar to the present day volcanic island chains found around the Pacific such as the Aleutians or Japan, all of which lie above subduction zones. The remnants of these ancient volcanoes and their deposits now form the hard craggy rocks of Snowdonia. Of course not all magma makes it to the surface and that which doesn’t, with time, will slowly cool and crystallise producing medium to coarse-grained igneous rocks such as granites. The Trefor Granite and the associated granites that form the prominent hills of the Lleyn are an example of such slow cooling magmas and probably represent the deep roots of the volcanic province that formerly extended west from Snowdonia along the Lleyn Peninsula.
Trefor Granite is no longer in the pristine state it was in when it first crystallized. A subsequent mild metamorphic event resulted in the rock being slightly hydrated. The colours (pink and white) and the opaqueness of the feldspars are a consequence of reactions with hot water which form a veneer of hydrated minerals on the surfaces of the crystals and on the surfaces of micropores within them. The iron magnesium silicates have also been hydrated so that of all the common minerals found in the granite only quartz has remained completely unaltered.
However, although the rock may not take a polish as well as an unaltered granite it has retained its high crushing strength, which is a necessary requirement for curling stones. So, by an accident of its geological history, this unique Welsh rock is now the most sought after material for curling stones in the world.

[Keith]

I have a link with the Antill family.

My GGG uncle, Stephen Baum (born Mountsorrel, 1860) married Annie Wood Antill (born Belgrave, 1864) in 1887. They had two children, Eveline (born 1889), and Alwyne John (born 1896). Alwyne John died at Ypres on the 4th. June 1915, and Eveline married Leonard A. Wykes in 1915. They had one son, Alwyne John, born 1915.

They all stayed in Leicestershire, but a large number of Mountsorrel workers and their families came over to Trefor when the Mountsorrel Granite Company took over the quarry in the 1860's.

[mareanna]

Keith

This is the family tree on t'internet: http//www.antill.org.uk

It does not show any links to living relatives, but I am pretty sure there are BAUMS on the more detailed database at home.  If this is the same Annie, it shows her in 1871 with her mother married to Joseph Merrick (his second marriage).  This Annie was born in Sileby and was the daughter of John Wood Antill and Emma Warner

[Olly]

Keith

Thanks for the info on Trefor Quarry.
I need to look into it further as my Great grandad, also Trevor Jones, worked with stone.
He may or may not have a link with the Trefor Quarry - after all the name is very common.

Regards
Olly

[chwaral]

There are Baums still in Trefor. Also, Miss Antill used to be my mother's primary school teacher in Trefor.

[Jaxyfone]

Excuse me resurrecting a (very) old thread but I've been away from this site for some time and was reminded of it again after a Google search.
I'm currently researching the Newbold family of Mountsorrel/Rothley, Leicestershire and have found some in Trefor/Llanaelaiarn that I haven't got a family link to as yet but I'm pretty certain they are linked to my Newbolds, who also went to Dalbeattie at one point.
My Newbolds are also linked to the Antills of Mountsorrel. Charles Antill(bn 1826) lived with my GGG Grandmother, Sophia Ward(bn 1816), in Mountsorrel after my GGG Grandfather, Matthew Newbold(bn 1816) apparently left her and moved to Nottingham. He married Mary Ann Haywood around 1868. It seems Matthew and Charles had some sort of friendship before that because there are various newspaper reports of the two of them being up in court for their misdeamours, usually centred around them being drunk and/or being involved in poaching!
Charles later became a 'photographic artist' and I believe would travel around the country with fairs - effectively a street photographer. I'm sad to say, though, that I cannot think of him as the charming rogue he sounds because on one occasion he went to prison for severly beating his two-year-old stepdaughter whose back was described as 'a mass of bruises' in court.

[mareanna]

There is a family link to the "Trefor" Newbolds from your Matthew Newbold. 

The Antills and Newbolds, and many others from Leicestershire followed the quarry work from Mountsorrel to Trefor, the same company owned both quarries.  The workers also went to Threkeld in Cumbria and Dalbeattie

More details are on www.antill.org  There are just too many names to list here