The remains of the industrial revolution in pictures
Working the slate: splitting and dressing
One of my all time favourite museums is the National Slate Museum in Llanberis. The museum has been built in the old quarry workshops of the Dinorwic Quarry, once one of the largest slate quarries in the world, where all manner of parts and equipment for use in the quarry could be made, engines were serviced, and the men would gather for meal breaks.
The museum shows Not only how the workshops worked, but the social conditions of slate quarrymen, where they lived, how things like splitting and dressing slates were undertaken.
This post is about the skills still retained to split and dress slates in the traditional manner.
One of the joys of the National Slate Museum is the seeing to show skills that in some cases are long lost or now done by machine. The museum has people who have learned the skills of splitting and dressing slates, which for many years was undertaken in sheds in the quarry. Although the vacuum is a modern addition due to health and safety law, and the danger slate dust can be, the same tools are still used as would have been 50+ years ago.The first job was to split the blocks of slate into what would become the individual slates. Slate is formed in such a way that it has a natural grain that can be easily split. Slate is a also a ‘soft’ rock that means two long chisels can be driven into the top to then force the slate apart without it cracking.The nest stage is mark up the slates to be cut to the correct size. Roofing slates come in a number of standard sizes and these can be ‘chalked up’ on the slates.The slates are placed on a blunt metal edge, and similarly blunt knife is used to remove the excess slate A slate dresser could dress hundreds even thousands of slates in a single shift.
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Flat Cap and Camera 