Dinorwic: The Llanberis Slate Quarry, 1780-1969

The Dinorwic Quarry at Llanberis, now the home of the National Slate Museum and the Electric Mountain Visitor Centre, was once one of the largest slate quarries in the world. Today the scars of the terraces on the side of Elidir Fach and Elidir Fawr, along with the tips of slate waste, are silent testimony to the industrialisation of this beautiful north Wales valley. The quarry was once the major source of income for many communities, not only in the shadow of the mountain itself, but as far away as the east coast of the Isle of Anglesey from where many workmen travelled by boat and train every weekend to live in the spartan conditions of the quarry barracks.Slate quarrymen were a special breed of highly skilled workers who laboured in what would now been seen as appalling conditions in the face of the prevailing elements, forever running the risk of death, ill-health and serious injury. In this book, written nearly forty years after the closure of Dinorwic, the author has, for the first time, painted a portrait of the quarry itself, the men who worked there (be they managers, quarrymen or labourers) and the communities in which they lived.Many of the photographs have never previously been published and should be of interest to not only students of industrial archaeology but also to the former slate quarry workers and their families as well as to local and family historians. The section on transport will have a particular appeal to those interested in industrial railways.

Author: Reg Chambers Jones
Publisher: Bridge
Extra Details: Hardback + Jacket 8 x 10 inches tall, 176 Pages, Lavishly Illustrated with old B&W Photos throughout.