View from Slate Museum
The Welsh Mountains
I would like to start by saying Thank you to Alan for sharing his knowledge and giving me a history lesson on the way down to Snowdon. I enjoyed and appreciated this.
When we finally arrived all of us headed to the 1st cafe for a drink and light refreshments. We had arrived in time for the slate splitting demonstration, the entertaining cheeky chappy has his work cut out with our gang there. He was very good with the children in the audience and was great at delivering the knowledge as well as the demonstration. I found this really interesting and I was astonished at how the pit bosses would cheat and treat the workers.
We were shown how slate was split with a hammer and chisel and how there can be faults in the slate. How they were measured and cut, why the sizes had women's names , and also he showed us how a heart can be cut out of slate. To finish off there was a questions and answers session.
Members of NWMAT watching demonstration on Slate splitting.
The very entertaining demonstrator, this was excellent.
A mixture of what was to see.
The photos below are a selection of what was on offer to see, there were also films to watch, a machine shop, blacksmith forge, power hall and much more. There was also lots in the court yard as you came in to see.
Spoilt for choice I started in the court yard and worked my way around. I eventually met up with the rest of the gang for a short while to have lunch in the 2nd coffee shop which was really nice. Then off I went again to have a look at what else I hadn't seen.
The foundry
The enormous water wheel powering everything.
Pattern
The kitchens in a 1969 house.
There was a row of houses with back yards which we were able to go and have a look in - one even had its own privy ( outside loo ). In house no 4 there were films being shown that told the story about the people who had lived in them. It also showed how the houses were dismantled and rebuilt to be used in the museum.
House no3 - Tanygrisiau - (In the brochure this was titled "The Golden Age ") was first recorded as early as 1861 in the Census and this house was made up to look like this era. We were able to go inside the house to see how people would have lived in it.
House no 2 - Bethesda - (the brochure talks about 1901 The Penrhyn strike) - In Nov 1900 2,800 men walked out over a pay dispute, money became scarce and so did food because of this. The strike failed and the industry soon declined after.
House no1- Llanberis - (1969 The End of an Era )- In the 1950s and 60s many quarries were closing. July 1969 Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle on a dais of Dinorwig slate. About a month later the Dinorwig Quarry was closed which left 350 men out of work.
For more information on the Slate Museum click on link.
For info on
North Wales Miners Trust
( NWMAT )
North Wales Miners Trust
( NWMAT )
No comments:
Post a Comment