To celebrate the arrival of our slate geocions we are visiting Penrhyn Quarry the source of the slate.
At the end of the nineteenth century Penrhyn Quarry was the world's largest open cast slate quarry, the main pit is nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long and 1,200 feet (370 metres) deep, it was worked by nearly 3,000 quarrymen and is now the home of Zip World. The first reference to slate extraction at Penrhyn is from 1570 and continues to this day. In the 1770's Richard Pennant began developing the quarry with the early slate production for local use only due to there being no suitable transport infrastructure. In 1798 the narrow gauge Penrhyn Quarry Railway was built enabling slates to be transported to the sea at Port Penrhyn and slate production increased. Poor pay and conditions lead to two major stikes,1896 and 1900, the later lasting for 3 years which divided the community between those who laid down their tools and those who crossed the picket line. In the longer term the dispute cast the shadow of unreliability on the North Welsh slate industry, causing orders to drop sharply and thousands of workers to be laid off. In 2007 the quarry was purchased by Kevin Lagan and the quarry was renamed Welsh Slate Ltd.
Where: Blondin Restaurant, Zip World Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda LL57 4YG
When: Sunday 4th December
Time: 2.30pm-3.30pm
‘The Blondin’ was a type of aerial ropeway developed to transport slate in open quarries in North Wales, named after the 18th century tightrope walker Charles Blondin. Examples of these were used throughout Penrhyn Quarry with the nickname of ‘Jerry Ms’.