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The barracks were home during the week for the quarrymen who
lived too far away to travel each day. Many came from Anglesey
- they would rise at 3 a.m. on Monday morning and begin their
journey by foot, ferry and train, arriving at the quarry by 6 a.m.
These barracks were built in a row of eleven dwellings, and faced
another row of eleven 'houses'.
The barracks were small and spartan, consisting of a living room
with a fireplace, table and chairs and a sleeping room with wooden
beds and chaff mattresses. They had no indoor water supply or toilet
and no electricity.
The Anglesey Barracks can still be visited by following the signed
walk from the Padarn Country Park. Visit the Slate Museum - the
former Dinorwic quarry workshops - whilst you are there and ride
on the Llanberis Lake Railway. The railway occupies part of the
trackbed of the Dinorwic Slate Quarries Railway and the locos are
ex-Dinorwic quarry Hunslets. Take a look at the quarry hospital
whilst you are there. Slate quarries were hazardous places to work
as evidenced by the entries in the hospital accident book.