Slate industry in Wales
The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the
Up to the end of the 18th century, slate was extracted on a small scale by groups of quarrymen who paid a royalty to the landlord, carted slate to the ports, and then shipped it to England, Ireland and sometimes France. Towards the close of the century, the landowners began to operate the quarries themselves, on a larger scale. After the government abolished slate duty in 1831, rapid expansion was propelled by the building of
The slate industry dominated the economy of north-west Wales during the second half of the 19th century, but was on a much smaller scale elsewhere. In 1898, a work force of 17,000 men produced half a million tons of slate. A bitter industrial dispute at the Penrhyn Quarry between 1900 and 1903 marked the beginning of its decline, and the First World War saw a great reduction in the number of men employed in the industry. The Great Depression and Second World War led to the closure of many smaller quarries, and competition from other roofing materials, particularly tiles, resulted in the closure of most of the larger quarries in the 1960s and 1970s. Slate production continues on a much reduced scale.
On 28 July 2021, the slate landscape of northwest Wales was awarded the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site,[4] whilst as early as 2018 Welsh slate was designated by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource.[5][6]
Beginnings
The slate deposits of Wales belong to three geological series: Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian. The Cambrian deposits run south-west from Conwy to near Criccieth; these deposits were quarried in the Penrhyn and Dinorwig quarries and in the Nantlle Valley. There are smaller outcrops elsewhere, for example on Anglesey. The Ordovician deposits run south-west from Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog; these were the deposits mined at Blaenau Ffestiniog. There is another band of Ordovician slate further south, running from Llangynnog to Aberdyfi, quarried mainly in the Corris area, with a few outcrops in south-west Wales, notably Pembrokeshire. The Silurian deposits are mainly further east in the Dee valley and around Machynlleth.[7]
The virtues of slate as a building and roofing material have been recognised since the Roman period. The Roman fort at Segontium, Caernarfon, was originally roofed with tiles, but the later levels contain numerous slates, used for both roofing and flooring. The nearest deposits are about five miles (8 km) away in the Cilgwyn area, indicating that the slates were not used merely because they were available on-site.
Transport problems meant that the slate was usually used fairly close to the quarries. There was some transport by sea. A poem by the 15th century poet
Until the late 18th century, slate was extracted from many small pits by small partnerships of local men, who did not own the capital to expand further. The quarrymen usually had to pay a rent or royalty to the landlord, though the quarrymen at Cilgwyn did not. A letter from the agent of the Penrhyn estate, John Paynter, in 1738 complains that competition from Cilgwyn was affecting the sales of Penrhyn slates. The Cilgwyn slates could be extracted more cheaply and sold at a higher price.[16] Penrhyn introduced larger sizes of slate between 1730 and 1740, and gave these sizes the names which became standard. These ranged from "Duchesses", the largest at 24 inches (610 mm) by 12 inches (300 mm), through "Countesses", "Ladies" and "Doubles" to the smallest "Singles".[17]
Growth (1760–1830)
Methusalem Jones, previously a quarryman at Cilgwyn, began to work the Diffwys quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog in the 1760s, which became the first large quarry in the area.
Wales was by now producing more than half the United Kingdom's output of slate, 26,000 tons out of a total UK production of 45,000 tons in 1793.
Peak production (1831–1878)
Expansion at Blaenau Ffestiniog
In 1831 slate duty was abolished, and this helped to produce a rapid expansion in the industry, particularly since the duty on
Mechanization and increased production
In 1843, the Padarn Railway became the first quarry railway to use steam locomotives, and the transport of slate by train rather than by ship was made easier when the
The larger quarries could be highly profitable. The Mining Journal estimated in 1859 that the Penrhyn quarries produced an annual
It dominated the economy of the north-west of Wales, where, by the middle of the 19thC. it accounted for almost half the total revenues from trade, industry and the professions, and in Wales as a whole, its output value compared with that of coal.[45]
The prosperity of the slate industry led to the growth of a number of other associated industries.
Workers
There were several different categories of worker in the quarries. The quarrymen proper, who made up just over 50% of the workforce, worked the slate in partnerships of three, four, six or eight, known as "bargain gangs".[48] A gang of four typically consisted of two "rockmen" who would blast the rock to produce blocks, a splitter, who would split the blocks with hammer and chisel, and a dresser. A rybelwr would usually be a boy learning his trade, who would wander around the galleries offering assistance to the gangs. Sometimes a gang would give him a block of slate to split. Other groups were the "bad rockmen" who usually worked in crews of three, removing unworkable rock from the face, and the "rubbish men" who cleared the waste rock from the galleries and built the tips of waste which surrounded the quarry.[49] Only about a tenth, or less, of the rock extracted became finished product.[50]
The bad rockmen and rubbish men were usually paid by the ton of material removed, but the quarrymen were paid according to a more complicated system. Part of the payment was determined by the number of slates the gang produced, but this could vary greatly according to the nature of the rock in the section allocated to them. The men would therefore be paid an extra sum of "poundage" per pound's worth of slate produced. "Bargains" were let by the setting steward, who would agree a price for a certain area of rock. If the rock in the bargain allocated to a gang was poor, they would be paid a higher poundage, while good rock meant a lower poundage.[51] The first Monday of every month was "bargain letting day" when these agreements were made between men and management. The men had to pay for their ropes and chains, for tools and for services such as sharpening and repairing. Subs (advances) were paid every week, everything being settled up on the "day of the big pay". If conditions had not been good, the men could end up owing the management money. This system was not finally abolished until after the Second World War.[52]
Because of this arrangement, the men tended to see themselves as independent contractors rather than employees on a wage, and trade unions were slow to develop. There were grievances however, including unfairness in setting bargains and disputes over days off. The North Wales Quarrymen's Union (NWQMU) was formed in 1874, and the same year there were disputes at Dinorwig and then at Penrhyn. Both these disputes ended in victory for the workers, and by May 1878, the union had 8,368 members.[53] One of the founders of the union, Morgan Richards, described in 1876 the conditions when he started work in the quarries forty years before:
I well remember the time when I was myself a child of bondage; when my father and neighbours, as well as myself, had to rise early, to walk five miles (8 km) before six in the morning, and the same distance home after six in the evening; to work hard from six to six; to dine on cold coffee, or a cup of buttermilk, and a slice of bread and butter; and to support (as some of them had to do) a family of perhaps five, eight or ten children on wages averaging from 12s to 16s a week.[54]
Industrial unrest and decline (1879–1938)
Labour disputes
In 1879, a period of twenty years of almost uninterrupted growth came to an end, and the slate industry was hit by a
There was an upturn in trade in 1892, heralding another period of growth in the industry. This growth was mainly at Blaenau Ffestiniog and in the Nantlle Valley, where the workforce at Penyrorsedd reached 450.[60] Slate production in Wales peaked at over half a million tons in 1898, with 17,000 men employed in the industry.[61] A second lock-out or strike[62] at the Penrhyn Quarry began on 22 November 1900 and lasted for three years. The causes of the dispute were complex, but included the extension of a system of contracting out parts of the quarry. The quarrymen, instead of arranging their own bargains, would find themselves working for a contractor.[63] The union's funds for strike pay were inadequate, and there was a great deal of hardship among the 2,800 workers. Lord Penrhyn reopened the quarry in June 1901, and about 500 men returned to work, to be castigated as "traitors" by the remainder. Eventually the workers were forced to return to work in November 1903 on terms laid down by Lord Penrhyn. Many of the men considered to have been prominent in the union were not re-employed, and many of those who had left the area to seek work elsewhere did not return. The dispute left a lasting legacy of bitterness in the Bethesda area.[64]
Decline in production
The loss of production at Penrhyn led to a temporary shortage of slates and kept prices high, but part of the shortfall was made up by imports. French exports of slate to the UK increased from 40,000 tons in 1898 to 105,000 tons in 1902.[65] After 1903 there was a depression in the slate industry which led to reductions in pay and job losses. New techniques in tile manufacture had reduced costs, making tiles more competitive.[66] In addition, several countries had placed tariffs on the import of British slate, while a slump in the home building trade had reduced domestic demand; finally French slate producers had increased their exports to the United Kingdom. All of this led to a prolonged decline in demand for Welsh slate.[67] Eight Ffestiniog quarries closed between 1908 and 1913, and the Oakley dismissed 350 men in 1909.[65] R. Merfyn Jones comments:
The effects of this depression on the quarrying districts were deep and painful. Unemployment and emigration became constant features of the slate communities; distress was widespread. In the quarries there was short-time working, closures and reductions in earnings. Between 1906 and 1913 the number of men at work in the quarries of the Ffestiniog district shrank by 28 per cent, in Dyffryn Nantlle the number at work fell even more dramatically by 38 per cent.[68]
The First World War hit the slate industry badly, particularly in Blaenau Ffestiniog where exports to Germany had been an important source of income. Cilgwyn, the oldest quarry in Wales, closed in 1914, though it later reopened. In 1917, slate quarrying was declared a non-essential industry and a number of quarries were closed for the remainder of the war.[69] The demand for new houses after the end of the war brought back a measure of prosperity; in the slate mines of Blaenau Ffestiniog production was almost back to 1913 levels by 1927, but in the quarries the output was still well below the pre-war level.[70] The Great Depression in the 1930s led to cuts in production, with exports particularly hard hit.[71]
The quarries and mines made increasing use of mechanisation from the start of the 20th century, with electricity replacing steam and water as a power source. The Llechwedd quarry introduced its first electrical plant in 1891, and in 1906, a hydro-electric plant was opened in Cwm Dyli, on the lower slopes of Snowdon, which supplied electricity to the largest quarries in the area.[72] The use of electric saws and other machinery reduced the hard manual labour involved in extracting the slate, but produced much more slate dust than the old manual methods, leading to an increased incidence of silicosis.[73] The work was also dangerous in other ways, with the blasting operations responsible for many deaths. A government enquiry in 1893 found that the death rate for underground workers in the slate mines was 3.23 per thousand, higher than the rate for coal miners.[52]
End of large-scale production (1939–2005)
The outbreak of World War II in 1939 led to a severe drop in trade. Part of the
Total production of slate in Wales declined from 54,000 tons in 1958 to 22,000 tons in 1970.
For many years, the quarry owners had denied that slate dust was the cause of the high levels of silicosis suffered by quarrymen. From 1909, they had been responsible for all accidents and illnesses caused by the work, but had managed to persuade successive governments that slate dust was harmless.[67] In 1979, after a long struggle, the government recognised silicosis as an industrial disease meriting compensation.[73] There was an increase in demand for slate in the 1980s, and although this came too late for many quarries there was still some production in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area at the Oakeley, Llechwedd and Cwt-y-Bugail quarries, though the bulk of roofing slate production was at the Penrhyn Quarry. Further mechanisation was introduced, with a computerised laser beam being used to aid the sawing of the slate blocks.[72]
Welsh slate today
Quarries still producing slate
As of 2022[update], the
The Greaves Welsh Slate Company produces roofing slates and other slate products from Llechwedd, and work also continues at the Berwyn Quarry near Llangollen. The final large-scale underground working to close was Maenofferen, associated with the Llechwedd tourist mine, in 1999: part of this site, now effectively amalgamated with Votty / Bowydd, is still worked by untopping.[87] The Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff uses waste slate in many different colours in its design: purple slate from Penrhyn, blue from Cwt-y-Bugail, green from Nantlle, grey from Llechwedd, and black from Corris.[88]
Visitor attractions
Part of the Dinorwig Slate Quarry is now within the Padarn Country Park, and the other part houses the
In Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Llechwedd Slate Caverns have been converted into a visitor attraction.[90] Visitors can travel on the Miners' Tramway or descend into the Deep Mine, via the steepest cable railway in Europe, to explore this former slate mine and learn how slate was extracted and processed and about the lives of the miners.[91] The Braichgoch slate mines at Corris have been converted into a tourist attraction named "King Arthur's Labyrinth" where visitors are taken underground by boat along a subterranean river and walk through the caverns to see audiovisual presentations of the Arthurian legends.[92] The Llwyngwern quarry near Machynlleth is now the site of the Centre for Alternative Technology. A number of the railways which carried the slates to the ports have been restored as tourist attractions, for example the Ffestiniog Railway and the Talyllyn Railway.[93]
Slate landscape of Northwest Wales - World Heritage status
UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
---|---|
Location | United Kingdom |
Criteria | Cultural: (ii)(iv) |
Reference | 1633 |
Inscription | 2021 (44th Session) |
In July 2021, after development of a bid for over 10 years,
Cultural influences
The Welsh slate industry was essentially a Welsh-speaking industry. Most of the workforce in the main slate-producing areas of North Wales were drawn from the local area, with little immigration from outside Wales. The industry had a considerable influence on the culture of the area and on that of Wales as a whole. The caban, the cabin where the quarrymen gathered for their lunch break, was often the scene of wide-ranging discussions, which were often formally minuted. A surviving set of minutes from a caban at the Llechwedd mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog for 1908–1910 records discussions on Church Disestablishment, tariff reform and other political topics.[102] Eisteddfodau were held, poetry composed and discussed and most of the larger quarries had their own band, with the Oakley band particularly famous. Burn calculates that there are around fifty men judged worthy of an entry in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography who started their working lives as slate quarrymen, compared to only four owners, though obviously there was also a distinct disparity in the numbers of the two groups.[103]
A number of
Notes
- ^ Jones p. 72
- ^ "Story of Slate". Museum Wales. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ a b Lindsay p. 133
- ^ The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales; https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1633/
- ^ "Designation of GHSR". IUGS Subcommission: Heritage Stones. Archived from the original on 24 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
- ^ "The Newsletter of the Heritage Stones Subcommission, A Subcommission of the International Union of Geological Sciences, Nº5, p. 4;" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2021.
- ^ Richards 1995 pp. 10–11
- ^ Lindsay p. 18. Slate flagstones were also used at the smaller fort of Caer Llugwy between Capel Curig and the Conwy Valley.
- ^ Lindsay p. 314
- ^ Lindsay p. 27
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 13
- ^ Lindsay p. 14
- ^ Lindsay p. 24
- ^ "Port Penrhyn website". Port Penrhyn Port Authority. Archived from the original on 18 February 2006. Retrieved 6 September 2006.
- ^ For example the pack-horses carrying Penrhyn slate were usually tended by girls; see Richards 1999 p. 19
- ^ Lindsay pp. 29–30
- ^ Lindsay pp, 36–7
- ^ Lindsay p. 30
- ^ Lewis p. 6
- ^ Richards 1995 pp. 16–17
- ^ Lindsay p. 45
- ^ Richards pp. 21–22
- ^ Lewis p.5
- ^ Williams p. 16
- ^ Williams p. 5
- ^ Lindsay pp. 91–2
- ^ Lindsay p. 99
- ^ Williams p. 10
- ^ Lindsay pp. 49–50
- ^ a b Richards 1999 p. 15
- ^ Lindsey p. 117
- ^ Strictly speaking, most of the slate produced in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area was mined from underground workings rather than quarried. These workings are frequently called "quarries" in the industry, and many began as surface workings.
- ^ Hughes p. 23
- ^ Burn p. 5
- ^ Hughes p. 31
- ^ Holmes p. 13
- ^ Holmes pp. 9, 11
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 95
- ^ Williams pp. 15–16
- ^ Williams pp. 16–19
- ^ Jones pp. 121–1
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 122
- ^ Richards 1995 pp. 115–6
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 123
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 8
- ^ Hughes p. 37
- Welsh Slate Museum. Archived from the originalon 13 January 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
- ^ Jones pp. 72–3
- ^ Jones p. 73
- ^ A Gazeteer of the Welsh Slate Industry, Alun John Richards, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1991. p.13
- ^ Jones pp. 81–2
- ^ a b Williams p. 27
- ^ Jones p. 112
- ^ Quoted in Burn p. 10
- ^ Jones p. 113
- ^ Jones pp. 49–71
- ^ Jones pp. 149–160
- ^ Lindsay pp. 264–5
- ^ Jones pp. 186–95
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 145
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 146
- ^ The question of whether the dispute was a lock-out or a strike can still arouse strong feelings in the Bethesda area a century later. See Richards 1995 p. 146.
- ^ Jones p. 211
- ^ Jones pp. 210–66
- ^ a b Burn p. 17
- ^ Lindsay p. 256–7
- ^ a b Engineering and Mining Journal
- ^ Jones p. 295
- ^ Lindsay p. 260
- ^ Pritchard p. 24
- ^ Lindsay p. 294
- ^ a b Williams p. 19
- ^ a b Williams p. 30
- ^ a b Lindsay p. 298
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 182
- ^ Richards 1995 pp. 183, 220–1
- ^ Richards pp. 183–4
- ^ Lindsay p. 303
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 185
- ^ Problems, United States Congress Senate Committee on Unemployment (1960). Readings in Unemployment. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 1696.
- ^ Lindsay pp. 305–6
- ^ "About Welsh slate". Breedon Group PLC. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 191
- ^ "Quarry firm Welsh Slate sold as part of multi-million pound deal". Daily Post. 17 April 2018. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ^ Trewyn, Hywel (18 March 2010). "Blaenau Ffestiniog jobs blow as quarry shuts". Caernarfon and Denbigh Herald. Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
- ^ "Quarry losses hit Snowdonia town". BBC. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
- ^ "Untopping" involves recovering slate from former slate mines by digging from the surface to remove the pillars which formerly separated the chambers. These pillars usually contain good slate.
- ^ "Wales Millennium Centre". SPG Media Limited. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
- ^ "National Museum Wales website". National Slate Museum. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Richards 1995 p. 188
- ^ "Llechwedd Deep Mine website". Llechwedd Slate Caverns. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ "King Arthur's Labyrinth website". King Arthur's Labyrinth Ltd. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Richards 1999 p. 14
- ^ "The Nomination". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Wales' slate landscape wins World Heritage status". BBC News. 28 July 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Penrhyn Slate Quarry and Bethesda, and the Ogwen Valley to Port Penrhyn". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Dinorwig Slate Quarry Mountain Landscape". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Nantlle Valley Slate Quarry Landscape". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Gorseddau and Prince of Wales Slate Quarries, Railway and Mill". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Ffestiniog: its Slate Mines and Quarries, "city of slates" and Railway to Porthmadog". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ "Bryneglwys Slate Quarry, Abergynolwyn Village and the Talyllyn Railway". Llechi Cymru. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
- ^ Burn p. 14
- ^ Burn p. 15
- ^ "National Screen and Sound Archive for Wales". National Library of Wales. Archived from the original on 2 October 2006. Retrieved 13 September 2006.
References
- Burn, Michael. 1972. The Age of Slate. Quarry Tours Ltd., Blaenau Ffestiniog.
- "Slate Mining in Wales and Cause of Its Decline". The Engineering and Mining Journal: 145–148. 18 January 1908. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
- Holmes, Alan. 1986. Slates from Abergynolwyn: the story of Bryneglwys Slate Quarry Gwynedd Archives Service. ISBN 0-901337-42-0
- Hughes, Emrys & Aled Eames. 1975. Porthmadog Ships. Gwynedd Archives Service.
- Jones, Gwynfor Pierce & Alun John Richards. 2004. Cwm Gwyrfai : the quarries of the North Wales narrow gauge and the Welsh Highland railways. Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-897-8
- Jones, R. Merfyn. 1981. The North Wales Quarrymen, 1874–1922 (Studies in Welsh history; 4.) University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-0776-0
- Lewis, M.J.T. & Williams, M. C. 1987. Pioneers of Ffestiniog Slate. Snowdonia National Park Study Centre, Plas Tan y Bwlch. ISBN 0-9512373-1-4
- Lindsay, Jean. 1974. A History of the North Wales Slate Industry. David and Charles, Newton Abbot. ISBN 0-7153-6264-X
- Pritchard, D. Dylan. 1946. The Slate Industry of North Wales: statement of the case for a plan. Gwasg Gee.
- Richards, Alun John. 1994. Slate Quarrying at Corris. Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-279-1
- Richards, Alun John. 1995. Slate Quarrying in Wales Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-319-4
- Richards, Alun John. 1998. The Slate Quarries of Pembrokeshire Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-484-0
- Richards, Alun John. 1999. The Slate Regions of North and Mid Wales and Their Railways Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 0-86381-552-9
- Williams, Merfyn. 1991. The Slate Industry. Shire Publications, Aylesbury. ISBN 0-7478-0124-X