The Oakeley Arms Hotel has a long and fascinating history
From a distance, the quiet mountains that surround the Oakeley Arms stand calm, proud and magnificent, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a noisy industrial and destructive history; one that was defined by Wales’ grey gold – the valuable Welsh slate that was dug from the quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog in thousands of tonnes and exported all over the world.
And that story starts with the affluent Oakeley family of Tan-y-Bwlch, the grand mansion a few yards west of the Oakeley Arms Hotel.
The hotel was for a long time part of the large Oakeley estate and so its fortunes were closely linked to those of the family, and have had almost as many twists and turns…..
Read more about the Oakeley Family
Plas Tan Y Bwlch.
Image: David Medcalf
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the daughter of wealthy local landowners and heiress to the estate of Plas Tan-y-Bwlch (which had originally been built by her predecessors around 1630) married a business man from Staffordshire named William Oakeley. The family would remain one of the most important and influential in the area for almost 200 years.
William Oakeley, known as “Oakeley Fawr” (Great Oakeley) made some minor improvements to the estate but when it was passed to his son William Griffith Oakeley in 1811, the fortunes of the family were cemented.
William Griffith spotted the potential of farmland he owned at nearby Rhiwbryfdir. In 1819, he rented it to a slate dealer from Liverpool, and within three years the land had been transformed from a small hole that employed three men, to the largest subterranean slate quarry in the world.
The hungry demand for the best slate in the world was growing quickly as the industrial revolution gathered speed and vast quantities of building materials were required across the world. By the end of the 19th century, the Oakeley quarries were producing 60,000 tonnes of slate a year; each tonne transported from the hills down to Porthmadog by the Ffestiniog Railway and shipped across the globe.
However, the Oakeley family’s fortunes were soon on a downward spiral. William Griffith died in 1854 without heirs, so the estate passed to his cousin’s oldest son, William Edward Oakeley. William Edward continued to expand the mines and built much of the village of Maentwrog to house his workers, but a series of bad decisions and tragic accidents at the quarries led to their demise.
William Edward was soon deeply in debt and the land that had once provided vast fortunes and a lavish lifestyle for the Oakeleys was now the cause of their near bankruptcy.
William Edward’s son had no interest in what was left and reputedly spent the last of the Oakeley fortune on gambling, and gradually, the once vast estate was sold off in parts to raise money.
In 1969, the house and grounds at Plas Tan y Bwlch were bought by a local council, and by the 1970’s was run by the Snowdonia National Park Authority. Today, the grand house is home to a study and eco-centre
There are some parts of the Oakeley Arms Hotel that date as far back as the 1600’s and it was originally known as the Tan y Bwlch Inn. The building as it stands today was built during the 1700’s when it was owned by a local drover and during this time it was used as a meeting place for local businessmen and as a make-shift court house and police station. Sometime during the early 1840’s it was renamed the Oakeley Arms, in honour of the estate it served.
The Oakeley Arms Hotel was auctioned off from the estate in 1910 along with 1,000 acres of land, and its fortunes too rose and fell during the twentieth century. It was given a grade II listing in 1954 because of its historical importance but by the turn of the new century was in a sad state of decay.
The current owners Ann-Marie and Chris Vanstone acquired the crumbling building in 2003, and have dedicated their working lives to restoring and refurbishing the grand hotel to its former glory.
The Oakeley Arms is proud of its distinctive crest, which has stood loyally as a symbol of the hotel since the nineteenth century. It means “I’m cautious but I do not fear”
You can read more about Plas Tan-y-Bwlch and the fortunes of the Oakeley family at www.plastanybwlch.com
