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 looks at the lives of the men working the slate
The museum has depicted a quarry manager’s house – a grand affair with a full Welsh dresser on showThe china on show and the other crockery shows they were not a poor family living here.An old singer sewing machine on show‘Y Caban’ was the mess room where the workers would meet and eat. It was an important centre for the quarrymen, and particularly in times such as the ‘lockout’ of the early 1900s, a place where the quarrymen met.Simple wooden tables, benches, enamel mugs and crockery – a far cry from the quarry manager’s house.Another view form inside ‘Y Caban’. You can imagine the men sitting in here, eating their food, drinking tea, and talking about anything and everything.The museum not only shows the working life of men, but also the home life of the quarrymen in 1-4 Fron Haul. These 4 cottages were moved from Tanygrisiau, near Blaenau Ffestiniog, stone by stone and erected on the museum site. 3 of the four cottages show typical quarryman’s houses in 3 different periods, in 3 different locations in North Wales.The cottages were fairly simple a simple 1 up one down cottages. This is 2 From Haul. In one house in the 1871 census for the Ffestiniog parish, 7 people were noted as living in One of these houses.2 From Haul depicts a typical quarryman’s cottage in the 1860s. In one house in the 1871 census for the Ffestiniog parish, 7 people were noted as living in a 1 up 1 down cottage!Even in a ‘poorer home’ in the 1860s, a full welsh dresser was already on display3 Fron Haul depicts a cottage from the 1900s, when the slate industry was nearly at its peak.Every detail of the houses has been attended to including the working ranges.Reminder of the primitive washing facilities contained in these cottagesThe scullery – everything down by hand laundry wise.4 Fron Haul shows a cottage in the Llanberis area in 1969. My mother remarked that she recognised so many of the features and fittings from her own house in Stoke growing up!By 1969, the cottages has been plumbed in, had baths, sinks and toilets indoors!
Flat Cap and Camera 