After feasting on a full Welsh breakfast at our Bryn B&B in the northern Welsh town of Conwy, we made our way back to the town of Llanberis we'd first seen the day before.
A slate wine rack would have made the perfect gift for our son-in-law, Will, who's in the wine business in the States but just a tad heavy to lug home!
We wandered around the property for a while, poking in doors, until the Slate Splitting Demonstration occurred. Splitting the Slate: Removing the slate from the mountainside was the first task for quarrymen. These large slabs were then turned into roofing slates, fence posts, gravestones, billiard tables and many other artifacts. The first refrigeration to keep milk cool used a slate slab in the pantry.
The end of the line for Dinorwig occurred on August 22, 1969, when work came to an end at Dinorwig Quarry. Everyone in this area in the '60s had lived in the shadow of the quarry their entire lives. Everyone had a father, grandfather, husband, uncle or brother who had worked there. Life without the quarry was unimaginable. Things hadn't gone well for a number of years. In 1898, the quarry employed 3,000 men but by 1969 only 350 worked there. The reason was less demand for slate by the 20th century and the quarries in north Wales had to compete for a share of a fairly small market.
By the '60s, investment was necessary to develop the quarry and the owners didn't have the money to spend. They were also dependent on orders for slate from France and when those stopped in July of 1969, the writing was on the wall.
After the closure: Many of the last 350 workers found other mining jobs, some locally but others further afield. By the end of 1969, auctions took place with the selling of anything and everything that was worth carrying from the quarry and the workshops. Efforts, however, ensured that the quarry's waterwheel was kept in place as a reminder of its important place in the area's history.
The quarry left its mark on the mountain, but its legacy could be seen in the close-knit community which created choirs, bands, drama companies, charitable societies and built chapels, schools and an university. This legacy in this valley and across northwest Wales was so important that a bid for World Heritage Site status was submitted to UNESCO.
We attended the slate splitting demonstration at 10 where John informed us he had been cutting slate for 35 years. As one of six generations in the business, he surely knew his stuff! We learned it would take a seven-year apprenticeship to be a quarryman years ago and four years to train as a splitter. John said the splitters were only paid on the finished products, had to pay for their own tools and 28 percent in breakage fees if items later broke.
He explained that a finished piece of dressed slate helped rainwater falls off the edge of the slate roof instead of a smooth edge. A skilled splitter could cut sixty tiles an hour.
We watched while John very carefully made a coaster in the shape of a heart. Of course, I ended up buying one in the gift shop later to remind us of the interesting time at the museum.
The Saw Mill: It was a huge task to maintain Dinorwig Quarry's network of producing shed, offices, blast shelters, incline drum houses and extensive railways. There was always a need for cut lumber. The workshops had the equipment to take in tree trunks and saw them to produce whatever was needed.
The Loco Shed: In this workshop, engineers repaired and maintained the Padarn Railway's fleet of gauge transporter wagons that were used to transport trucks of slate to the coast. The 19th century slate industry would not have flourished so successfully without the railway. This new breakthrough enabled remote areas of north Wales to deliver vast supplies of slate to distant towns and cities.
Dinorwig Quarry: The Dinorwig Workshops would not have existed without the Quarry although only a small part of it was visible from here. 500 million-year old rock was quarried using explosives. The blasting dislodged blocks which were then slit into convenient sizes for transport to the dressing sheds.
The Sawshed:
The Smithy: Every slate quarry was serviced by blacksmiths whose main work was to produce, sharpen and temper cold chisels and drill bits for quarrymen. They also performed these tasks at the quarry face using mobile equipment and continued to do so after the workshops were built in 1870. Blacksmiths here also were responsible for heavier engineering jobs.
Across from the falls was the self-described Ugly House which had been transformed into an appealing tearoom. It had been built overnight to take advantage of a 15th century law that allowed any quickie building avoid taxes and fees.
To make tweed, the raw wool was first dyed and then blended, carded and spun. The heathery yarn was then woven into tweed and sent out to be finished, i.e. washed and shrunk. Mottled colors of the mixture yarn blended to make a subtle pattern.
Did you ever guess there are nearly 500 sheep breeds in the world and they have been developed to suit local conditions? In the United Kingdom, there are about 50 breeds which can be divided into three groups: short wool and down, long wool and luster, and mountain and hill. The British wool used by Trefriw Woollen Mills was mainly from mountain and hill breeds who have soft, bouncy wool.
The mill was originally located on the banks of the River Crafnant in order to use the water for washing the woolen cloth and for driving the water wheels. The wheels were dismantled about 1900 when hydroelectric turbines were first installed.
There were six places we could get on and off the walls which were built at the same time as the castle. The English invaders lived inside the walls with the Welsh living outside.
Tower Ditch Road was named for the dry moat that was the first line of defense from the highest tower to the waterfront.
Next post: If the last couple of days was packed, that was nothing compared to the next when we drove to Liverpool for a bus tour of the Beatles' sights, then through England's famous Lake District and finally to just south of the Scottish border!
Posted on March 27th, 2020, as we're sheltering in place at our home in Denver because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Steven and I hope you will stay healthy and safe wherever you are.
I am concurrently writing posts from our much abbreviated trip to Asia and the Middle East that began on March 1st, 2020. Here's the link to the most recent post if you'd like to follow that trip!
https://bergersadventures8.blogspot.com/2020/03/34-treasures-at-colombos-national.html
Across the lake from the town was a giant slate quarry, home to the National Slate Museum that once housed the workshops for Dinorwig Quarry, one of the greatest quarries in the world when slate roofed the Industrial Revolution.
The men employed at the workshops were the aristocracy of the slate industry. Most important among these was the Chief Engineer. We didn't take the time to visit the interior of the engineer's home that was furnished as the home of a middle class citizen from around 1910.
We wandered around the property for a while, poking in doors, until the Slate Splitting Demonstration occurred. Splitting the Slate: Removing the slate from the mountainside was the first task for quarrymen. These large slabs were then turned into roofing slates, fence posts, gravestones, billiard tables and many other artifacts. The first refrigeration to keep milk cool used a slate slab in the pantry.
The Caban was where the workers gathered to eat but it was much more than a canteen in the slate industry. There they discussed the day's news and debate, especially at times of unrest, such as the 'Lockout' of 1885-6. There was a strict hierarchy about who sat where with apprentices usually being furthest from the fire. Workers on the quarry slopes also had their Cabanod giving them warmth and shelter.
Look at the mind boggling number of slate quarries in the tiny nation of Wales!
We attended the slate splitting demonstration at 10 where John informed us he had been cutting slate for 35 years. As one of six generations in the business, he surely knew his stuff! We learned it would take a seven-year apprenticeship to be a quarryman years ago and four years to train as a splitter. John said the splitters were only paid on the finished products, had to pay for their own tools and 28 percent in breakage fees if items later broke.
Men had to work the mine at a 74 percent angle to tap the slate.
Though the industry has been trying to mechanize for 40 years, 40-50 percent of all slate is still split by hand, John explained. Machines are used only for the finishing work. The rock is watered to keep it fresh before it’s split. There was lots of color variation in the slate in the mountain above Llanberis, the nearby town. John told us that 99 percent of local gravestones were made of slate.
He explained that a finished piece of dressed slate helped rainwater falls off the edge of the slate roof instead of a smooth edge. A skilled splitter could cut sixty tiles an hour.
We watched while John very carefully made a coaster in the shape of a heart. Of course, I ended up buying one in the gift shop later to remind us of the interesting time at the museum.
John mentioned how slate production involves millions of tons of waste as 94 percent was wasted each time. Slate dust was very harmful to miners and especially splitters with a life expectancy of only 42 years. Nowadays every piece of broken slate is sold and even the dug away soil is sold to garden centers so the issue of waste is of minimal concern.
Did you know that slate dust was used for making toothpaste and make up? Think of that the next time you use either!
Holes were punched from underneath so nails would lay flat on timber underlayment.
Granted I'd never given it a moment's thought before but still I was surprised at the huge number of slate sizes! They were identified by aristocratic female names: the Queen, the Duchess, the Lady, etc. The Countess size was the most popular one at 20 by 12.
John went on to say that China has huge slate mines as do both Spain and Canada but the Welsh slate can last up for 200 years and the owners would never need to bother with it, unlike slate from other countries that has a much shorter guarantee.
The Loco Shed: In this workshop, engineers repaired and maintained the Padarn Railway's fleet of gauge transporter wagons that were used to transport trucks of slate to the coast. The 19th century slate industry would not have flourished so successfully without the railway. This new breakthrough enabled remote areas of north Wales to deliver vast supplies of slate to distant towns and cities.
The largest working Waterwheel in mainland Britain was built around a 12' axle and constructed in 1870 in Caernarfon, the town we'd visited the day before. The giant 50-foot Waterwheel turned a shaft that ran through the workshop and powered all the various belt-driven machinery. Water ran onto the wheel without being pumped because the water intake point was higher than the feeder tank.
The blacksmiths also made the ornate windows in all the shops.
After our longish time at the interesting Slate Museum, I knew I would never take for granted again a simple piece of slate!
I took these photos in Snowdonia National Park, the second largest national park in Britain, on our way back to the enchanting village of Beddgelert we’d driven through the previous afternoon. It was hard to imagine a more serene place in the world than the views we came across. I can certainly see Steven and my wanting to return to this part of Wales some time to spend more time just wandering the trails and small villages.
A former slate mine:
The tallest mountain in Wales or Scotland was 3,560-foot high Mount Snowdon that is hiked each year by more than a half a million visitors.
Welsh Mountain Sheep were a constant sight on our drives in the northern part of the small country.
We had a lovely walk along the River Conwy outside of Beddgelert along the Snowdonia Slate Trail.
A former sheep pen:
Never had we come across a sign encouraging people if they enjoyed the flowers to water them using a watering can and dipping it into the river!
The village of just 455 according to the last census consisted of a cluster of stone houses that lined a brook in the shadow of Mount Snowdon. Many people come to the sweet Beddgelert for the wonderful trails into the nearby national park but I was bowled away by the cuteness of the community, its souvenir shops and, especially, its fudge shop as it had the yummiest vanilla fudge!
Then we drove east and north to Blaenau Ffestiniog, a quintessential Welsh slate-mining town famous for its Llechwedd Slate Caverns located just outside of town.
Long rows of humble ‘two up and two down’ homes – i.e. four rooms in all - lined the main street.
I had really hoped to participate in an underground slate mine tour at the caverns but unfortunately there were no tours available when we drove to the mine. Steven had planned to wait for me as being underground with all that dust would not have been healthy for him.
Mountain-like tips, i.e. piles of excess slate, lined both sides of the road to and from the town. The Welsh mined and split most of the slate roofs in Europe. But for every ton of usable slate that was found, ten tons were mined.
No matter where you looked there were tips.
We continued driving north toward the picturesque town of Betws-y-Coed, the resort center of Snowdonia National Park.
A few minutes out of town were the scenic Swallow Falls where we took selfies!
This perfect little cottage may also have been called the Ugly House because some legends say it was built by robbers and thieves taking advantage of travelers on the old highway as they journeyed through Snowdonia - in other words, ugly people that gave the home a bad reputation! Other people say the name is a corruption of the name of the river on the other side of the road, the Llugwy.
Restoration of the garden above the tearoom began in 1990 by Snowdonia Society volunteers with wildlife in mind. New plantings focusing on flowers that provided food for honeybees and other pollinators were added to established plants beneficial to birds, butterflies and moths.
We then drove on to the town of Trefriw where Thomas Williams had bought a mill in 1859 that had already been functioning for at least 30 years. We toured the Trefriw Woollen Mill, still owned and run by the same family, to get a peak into a working woolen mill where British and New Zealand wool was turned into tapestry bedspreads, rugs and coasters, etc.
We looked first at the Weaver's Garden which contained plants that provided fibers, soap, natural dyes, moth repellents and textile tools. In the background was the Craft Studio where we saw a demonstration on rag rug making and hand spinning.
The mill prided itself on its Welsh tapestry items that were exclusively available from the mill shop and on their website. The natural 'white' raw wool was blended, carded, spun and doubled so that two threads were twisted together. The yarn was then washed and dyed before being woven into their Welsh tapestry bedspreads, cloth, etc.
Did you ever guess there are nearly 500 sheep breeds in the world and they have been developed to suit local conditions? In the United Kingdom, there are about 50 breeds which can be divided into three groups: short wool and down, long wool and luster, and mountain and hill. The British wool used by Trefriw Woollen Mills was mainly from mountain and hill breeds who have soft, bouncy wool.
Darlene: I imagine you'd have loved taking the self-guided tour through the factory. I'm sure you could have told us a thing or two about what we were seeing! I think this was the Blending Shed where several types of raw wool would be weighed and laid in layers. Oil had to be added to help the wool pass through the machinery.
I think this was the Cop to Cone Winder where 'cops' from the spinning mule were wound onto cones to make larger, more stable packages.
It was interesting seeing a piece of fleece go through eleven stages until it finally ended up as a piece of fabric: blending, carding, spinning, doubling, hanking, spanking, warping, weaving, etc.
One of the few people we saw working anywhere in the vast mill was this weaver who was creating one of the company's most famous patterns into a lovely bedspread. As stunning as one would have looked on one of our beds, I contented myself with buying some coasters in this pattern as a lovely memory of our visit.
Weaving 101: I read that weaving is the interlacing of two sets of threads to make a cloth. The threads going down the cloth are known as the warp and the threads going across are known as the weft. The new warp is tied into the loom which meant the threads were tied onto the old warp to get the right sequence of coloring and pattern. Each thread of the warp needed to be threaded through an eye which was then attached to shafts. The shafts then were raised and lowered to make a shed through which the shuttle is knocked which leaves a trail of thread or weft.
Old Welsh Bedspreads: Each mill had its own pattern. There were hundreds of mills and as people didn't travel very much in the 19th century, a bedspread would likely have been made near the buyer. Most mills would have had staff at local weekly markets. 19th century bedspreads had borders all round and were often woven in two pieces and then joined together in the center. Bedspreads woven from the 1920s to the 1940s had borders down two sides, with fringes first added in the 1940s. After about 1950, bedspreads were woven without borders.
The yarn used in old bedspreads was much finer, more tightly woven than nowadays and usually woven in two colors. Though the first synthetic dye was invented in the mid-19th century, it was difficult to know when they reached Wales. Some mills seem to have continued to use natural dyes up to about 1930.
In he late afternoon, we returned to the town of Conwy where we were staying in a lovely B&B that butted up to the town's castle.
We began walking the walls that surrounded the garrison town of Conwy and its castle that were built in the 1280s to give English King Edward I a foothold in Wales. As there weren’t any cities in that era in Wales, Conwy became an English town that was ‘planted’ with English settlers for the king’s political aims. What remained were the best medieval walls in Britain.
Seeing the blue sky for the first time in a few days made the views that much more magical!
There were six places we could get on and off the walls which were built at the same time as the castle. The English invaders lived inside the walls with the Welsh living outside.
Views from the walls into our Bryn B&B!
From the tallest of the 22 towers, guards could spot ships approaching by sea. The turrets, connected by ramparts, were located every 50 yards. Each of the ramparts had a drawbridge that could be raised if necessary.
As we passed the second turret, we saw the cracked wall that was caused by construction for the train that accidentally undermined the foundation.
The Slate Memorials recalled the 1937 coronation of King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. I read that all children until the age of 12 are taught Welsh and that more people are now speaking Welsh.
To get a sense of the community of 4,000 people, we walked around the town, beginning at Lancaster Square. In the center was a column that honored the town’s founder, the Welsh prince Llewelyn the Great.
Tower Ditch Road was named for the dry moat that was the first line of defense from the highest tower to the waterfront.
The elderly people crossing sign at the bottom of the hill hit a little too close to home!
We re-entered the Old Town passing through a hole cut in the wall by a modern mayor who wanted better access from his land.
Walking down Berry Street, we learned it was originally called Burial Street because it used to be a big ditch for mass burials during a 17th century plague!
The Presbyterian Carmel Church was an example of “statement architecture” which meant no frills and was typical of early 20th century-built churches. The church was home to several Christian congregations which was the norm in small Welsh towns.
Strolling down High Street, i.e. Main St. in the US, we saw among the attractive tearooms and bakeries oodles of flags but they had no meaning other than to celebrate the town’s medieval feel.
At the bottom of High St. was Aberconwy House, one of the oldest homes in Conwy, and representative of the half-timbered homes so common in the former garrison town.
Harbor Gate, one of the three original gates in the town walls, led not surprisingly to the waterfront. The harbor dated from the 13th century when it was King Edward’s castle and town. Back when most of Europe’s roofs had Welsh slate, Conwy was a busy slate port. Slate was loaded onto three-masted ships where it was then transported to the continent.
The sign said this was the so-called Smallest House but I didn't know if that meant in Conwy only or in Wales or what!
Two jam-packed days were not enough to give us more than a whistle-stop appreciation of the sights and vistas in northern Wales. I sure hope we can return to explore the region when we have far more time as what we saw left us wanting far, far more!
Posted on March 27th, 2020, as we're sheltering in place at our home in Denver because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Steven and I hope you will stay healthy and safe wherever you are.
I am concurrently writing posts from our much abbreviated trip to Asia and the Middle East that began on March 1st, 2020. Here's the link to the most recent post if you'd like to follow that trip!
https://bergersadventures8.blogspot.com/2020/03/34-treasures-at-colombos-national.html