Slate in Caernarfon

The geological structure of an area, obviously, has a great influence on the later evolvement. Gwynedd, North Wales, conjures up a picture of pastoral slopes, mountains, rushing brooks and castles; the countryside populated more by sheep than people. A closer look at the landscape reveals a once thriving industry: slate quarrying. The use of slate in the area goes back at least until Roman times when it was used to roof the fort at Segontium (Caernarfon). It was quarried by local men and shipped to England, Ireland and France as it was much prized for castle roofs for it's incombustible and impervious qualities. Generally the quarrymen paid a royalty to the landowner and worked as independent contractors, a rent roll from 1413 shows that workers in Penrhyn Quarry were paid 10 pence (about 16¢) for 5000 slates. The Cilgwyn Quarry was on Crown land and thus the quarrymen did not have to pay rent or royalties, a fact which became a subject of complaints about unfair competition.

Towards the end of the 18th century the industrial revolution was gathering steam in Britain and there was increasing demand from the mill-owners of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands to throw up cheap houses. Demand soared for the slate and landowners, beginning with Richard Pennant, Baron Penrhyn started employing quarrymen themselves. In 1782 the independent workers were bought out or evicted and the new quarry, near Bethesda was to become the largest in the world. The quarrying system now became industrialized, horse drawn carts being replaced by trams and then narrow gauge railways. Small communities such as Bethesda, Pen-y-Groes and Blaneau Ffestiniog grew into towns with populations of 5000 - 10,000, with shops, an ice-rink and dance-halls.
he quarrymen stayed in barracks next to the quarries through the week, bidding farewell to their wives and sweethearts at kissing gates. The industry prospered through the 19th century, 17,000 men were employed to produce over half a million slates in 1893. A bitter labor dispute at the
Penrhyn quarry at the turn of the century followed by a depression and two world wars saw the decline and closure of the quarries. Today the quarries are flooded and tourists may ride the small railways to envision a hard life of a hundred and fifty years ago.