National Slate Museum Slate Quarrymen swap Industrial workshops for Castle splendour!  

For the first time in history slate quarrymen are working at Penrhyn Castle – the home of one of the wealthiest Slate Quarry owners in North Wales.  

Our demonstrating Slate Quarrymen, who usually hold demonstrations at the Museum in Llanberis, are instead demonstrating their skills and craftsmanship at the Castle.  

This astounding turning point comes as we are temporarily close to the public for redevelopment but we didn't want to stop telling our story so decided to take our story to other locations important to the story of slate and which are part of the World Heritage designation for the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales.  

Penrhyn Slate Quarry established by the Pennant family, dominated the Welsh slate industry for almost 150 years and was notorious for its harsh working conditions. In 1900, over 2000 workers went on strike for better wages and working conditions - a culmination of several years of dissatisfaction and unrest. 

Known locally as the Penrhyn Lockout, the strike lasted for over three years and was one of the longest and most bitter industrial disputes in British history. It caused incredible hardship for the Quarrymen and their families and ripped apart a community, dividing it into strike ‘faithful’s’ who remained on strike or left to find other work elsewhere, and ‘bradwrs’ (traitors) who returned to work. 

Many in the local community still regard the Castle as a symbol of wealth and oppression. Historically, Quarrymen would not have crossed the threshold to the Castle and many of their families have struggled to do so since then. 

Now managed by National Trust Cymru, Penrhyn Castle and Garden have been working with artists and the local community for over a decade to share more about this history and re-engage with its local community as Ceri Williams, General Manager at Penrhyn Castle explained: 

“Over the last decade and more we’ve been working to re-address the way we share our industrial and colonial connections at Penrhyn Castle. Each year, we've achieved new milestones, but welcoming the Quarrymen into the castle marks a significant leap forward in reconnecting the community with this historic site. 

Already, crowds have been gathering to catch a glimpse of the live slate-splitting demonstration that not only celebrates local craftmanship but provides authentic experiences that resonates with the castle’s industrial history. As we continue to work with the National Slate Museum over coming months, we look forward to combining our offers and providing visitors with a unique and memorable visit to Penrhyn Castle.”

For us, the opportunity to have our Quarrymen demonstrating at Penrhyn Castle is a key feature of our redevelopment programme - in particular our Museum on the Move campaign in 2025 as Elen Roberts, Head of the National Slate Museum explained: 

“We’re very grateful to the team at Penrhyn Castle and to National Trust Cymru, for giving us this unique opportunity to work with them as part of our redevelopment programme for the National Slate Museum.  We’ve worked closely with the Trust over the years to share the story of slate and this opportunity to share our Quarrymen’s skills and stories is an enormous thing from both sides. Relocating here – and to other sites around the World Heritage designation during our Museum’s redevelopment - will allow us to engage with new audiences and ensure our story continues beyond the walls of the museum. 

Our staff will benefit from continuing to interact with the public which will enhance their knowledge of the slate story, and hopefully visitors will benefit from encountering Museum staff in new locations – which, alongside the National Trust’s existing offer to visitors at Penrhyn Castle, will offer a fresh perspective on the story of slate”

Both attractions are key parts of the World Heritage Site for the Slate Landscape of North West Wales. Lord Dafydd Wigley, Chair of the Llechi Cymru Partnership welcomed the development:

“Cyngor Gwynedd and its partners have worked together over many years to develop a strong partnership to deliver the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage nomination and subsequent inscription. The results of this strong and active partnership is now bearing fruit as we not only see significant investment of over £30m through the Llewyrch o’r Llechi programme of activities - such as those at Amgueddfa Lechi Cymru and others across the Slate Landscape; but we are also seeing new and innovative ways of working together to reach new audiences, provide new experiences and to share our monumental and global story of how north Wales roofed the world.”

The Quarrymen are at Penrhyn Castle on a daily basis during 2025.                                         

For more information about the history of Penrhyn Castle visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/penrhyn-castle-and-garden

This month, one of the National Waterfront Museum’s largest displays is being dismantled, preparing the ground for our upcoming redevelopment.

These are our three ‘paternosters’ – continuously revolving elevators which reach almost ceiling height. Historically, paternoster lifts were used in buildings for people to step in and out to any floor they wished. Our museum paternosters allowed an extended display of exciting objects for visitors standing at floor level, triggering video interpretation as each case reached the front of the structure.

With revolving cogs, chains and the sounds of creaking metal, the Waterfront paternosters’ design echoed the industrial roots of the surrounding landscape and the museum’s thematic focus. Packed with examples of manufactured metals made in Wales, and internationally using Welsh metals, they are grouped under the categories ‘iron and steel, ‘non-ferrous’ and ‘coatings’. 

The display celebrated the skills of Welsh metalworkers whilst highlighting the impact of these industries on the wider world.

Planning the National Waterfront Museum in the early 2000s gave designers an opportunity to introduce modern and innovative methods of display. Just one other museum in the world uses the technique – the Audi Museum in Ingolstadt, Germany. 

What’s next for the paternosters?

Unfortunately, wear and tear on the components and the high cost of repairs meant the paternosters were unable to work as intended and visitors could not engage with the display, so the difficult decision was made to remove them. 

However, it is hoped that this is the first step towards a revamped gallery and a better offer for our visitors.

In the meantime, our curators are working on a redisplay with fresh, contemporary interpretation, allowing visitors to experience the objects in a new way. By the end of the year, we hope to use the space for a long-term display showcasing the inextricable links between Welsh industry and our maritime heritage – watch this space! 

Hi Bulb Buddies!

I hope you all enjoyed the first month of 2026 and have continued to collect your weather data since returning to school! Lots of exciting things took place in January, such as our ‘Name a Daffodil’ Competition, and two of our new Virtual Workshops. Thank you to all schools who took part in any of these activities, we really appreciate your support. If you are interested in catching our last two Virtual Workshops, you can still book a space here: Spring Bulbs for Schools Virtual Workshops | Museum Wales. Our ‘Name a Daffodil’ Competition is now officially closed, so keep an eye out for the name-reveal soon!

Let’s take a look at what kinds of weather January brought us:

January began as a particularly cold month with many experiencing frost, ice and snow across areas of the UK, with Scotland seeing ‘extensive’ snowfall reported by the Met Office. 

Storm Goretti then brought damaging winds particularly in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, causing the first red wind warning for 2026! It also brought snow across areas in Wales, the West Midlands and the South Pennines.

Later into the month, weather became wet and windy due to further recorded storms, Storm Ingrid and Storm Chandra, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Some areas of Somerset and Devon have experienced flooding too. This rain made its way to Northern Ireland, where the Met Office mentioned some of the heaviest monthly rainfall totals were recorded.

Many of these temperature and weather observations were logged in your comments and data uploads, so let’s look at what you experienced!

Weather and Temperature Observations:

Ysgol Pentreychaf:

Pentreuchaf wedi cael ychydig o eira dydd Llun wythnos yma

Henllys Church in Wales School

Snow, ice wind, rain , storms and sunshine A mixture of weather this week .

Langbank Primary School

It snowed here on Thursday. Our rain gauge was frozen so we had to melt the ice to find the volume of water

St John's Primary School

We were just back to school from the Christmas break. The water in the jug was quite a lot but we think it was because the snow had melted. It was very icy and cold this week coming to school.

Henllys Church in Wales School

Less rain means more playtime

Lammack Primary School

Snow and ice on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Some of our pots were vandalised during the Christmas holidays but we have collected most of the bulbs and will replant them as soon as we can.

Greenburn ASN School

At start of week, we were on an Amber alert for severe weather so not safe for the children to go out to take measurements

Henllys Church in Wales School

it is not as cold as it has been

Pil Primary School

It was very cold this week.

St John's Primary School

There was lots of rain this week. Some schools were closed on Tuesday as there was a storm, but our school was open.

Pil Primary School

It has been very wet this week.

Professor Plant:

Thank you so much for uploading your brilliant comments and including details that can help us learn more about how different areas of the UK have been affected by weather! It looks like many of you experienced the cold and snowy weather, with Langbank Primary School having to wait for their rain gauge to unfreeze before taking a reading!

Well done Lammack Primary School for continuing to collect data even when your pots were vandalised over the holidays, we really appreciate the effort you are putting in to replant your bulbs.

The weather has been particularly damaging this month, Greenburn ASN School, so we totally agree that safety comes first! Thank you for still taking the time to add this to your comments!

Bulb Updates:

Llanmartin Primary School

Bulb growth now 8.5cm

Mountain Lane School

Lots of shoots appearing for the bulbs A miserable drizzly week.

Langbank Primary School

Most of the bulbs that we planted in the ground are coming through now

We can see shoots from most of the daffodil bulbs in our pots now. Nearly all the bulbs in the ground ar growing and are about 6cm tall. There are no signs of the mystery bulbs and the crocus bulbs yet

Ysgol Gynradd Llandegfan

Mae ein bylbiau dirgel wedi dechrau tyfu.

Professor Plant:

It is amazing to hear that more schools have began to see growth in their bulbs. Keep checking to see how they change over February, you may start to see some flower!

Information on how to identify if your plants have flowered can be found on the website here: Step 5: Keeping flower records (January - March) | Museum Wales, as it can be tricky to know when the right time is to document the official flowering date.

You may find that some of your plants aren’t ready to flower yet, so please don’t worry if you do not have data to input so far! The best thing to do is to continue monitoring your plants in the meantime to spot any changes.

School closures!

Mountain Lane School

No results from Monday due to school being closed because of the snow. Lots of snow and on Thursday evening and rain night - we thought wed be closed but it was just slushy because of the temperature

Rhayader Primary

No records on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, due to INSET and 2 days of snow, so no school.

Ysgol Gymraeg Morswyn

Ysgol ar gau oherwydd rhai staff methu cael i mewn oherwydd eira ochr arall ir ynys. Dim eira yng Nghaergybi.

Plasnewydd Primary

School was closed on Monday and Tuesday because of snow.

Ysgol Gynradd Llandegfan

Oherwydd eira nid oedd yr ysgol yn agored ar y 5ed ar 6ed. Roedd wedi toddi erbyn y 7fed.

Professor Plant:

Don’t worry if your school had closed and no data could be collected; your safety comes first! I hope you have all returned to school by now, and are settling back in.

Thank you for your hard work uploading these comments despite the weather!

Well done again Bulb Buddies for your hard work over the last few months, you should be very proud of yourselves! Keep it up, and we will see what February brings us next!

Professor Plant

To celebrate 20 years of the Spring Bulbs for Schools Project we are hosting four virtual workshops that will explore painting, climate change, the industrial revolution, and much more!

English: Book your ticket

Welsh: Book your ticket

Una is undergoing essential repairs at Boston Lodge, the engineering works of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways. In December and January, a group of volunteers spent a couple of weekends offering their time to help with the task! 

Una the engine was built in 1905 by the Hunslet company of Leeds and worked at Pen-yr-Orsedd until about 1960, being used mainly to haul wagons of rubble inside the Quarry. Sadly, she failed her safety tests a few years ago and has had to remain out of action since then - much to the disappointment of staff and visitors.

This opportunity to help with the repairs has been a part of the collaboration between Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways and the National Slate Museum, as we knew people would jump at the chance to be a part of Una’s story! 

Over the course of two weekends, several volunteers helped to sand, scrape, clean and prepare metalwork from Una, ready for repainting. This is an essential part of restoring Una and ensuring the steam engine is preserved for future generations, as fresh paint helps protect the metal. 

"The day I spent working on Una has led to me pursuing the opportunity to volunteer on other projects within the Northwest Wales Slate Heritage Site... I really enjoyed the day" 

- David, volunteer

A big thank you to all those who came and contributed their time on cold winter weekends! It was wonderful to share Una’s story and see everyone’s passion shine through. 

As work continues with Una, we hope to offer more opportunities for people to engage with the journey! Join our mailing list to ensure you are kept up to date with the latest opportunities: 

Sign up to the mailing list

The project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, UK Government via Cyngor Gwynedd as part of the Llewyrch o'r Llechi project, Welsh Government including the Community Facilities Programme, the Wolfson Foundation and The Garfield Weston Foundation and other funders. We are extremely grateful to all our funders for their support.