33 photos of priceless artworks hidden inside Snowdonia quarry decades ago

During World War II, art was stolen, bombed and burnt right across Europe - but many British-owned masterpieces survived after spending the war years deep underground in a Snowdonia slate mine.

North Wales Live previously reported how, when efforts to protect priceless artworks from harm were made when war was declared in 1939, Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery, sent the rest of his 2,000-piece collection to Penrhyn Castle near Bangor, Bangor University’s Pritchard Jones Hall and the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth.

But, it was the German Luftwaffe which prompted its move to a quarry to be more protected. And these 33 fascinating images capture the treasures kept underground for safe keeping.

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Scouting for subterranean storage facilities, in September 1940, Francis Rawlins, the National Gallery’s scientific adviser, visited the Manod slate quarry near Blaenau Ffestiniog.

He found the quarry had vast man-made chambers 100 feet high and linked by tunnels and drainage shafts and that just five which no longer worked could be isolated and converted into a secret storage shelter.

These images, captured in 1942, show a number of the pieces that were protected, as well as them being out of storage for cleaning and restoration.

Manod proved so successful that, in the 1950s, it was the planned destination for Britain’s art treasures in the event of a third world war and the site was kept as a “prepared quarry” - in the official language - until the early 1980s.

Here are 33 fascinating images of Britain's priceless artworks hidden inside the Snowdonia quarry.

For beautiful, historic images from the past have a look at memorylane.co.uk/ and see what you can discover

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