Another succesfful seaon of peregrine watching has drawn to a close. Our sadness at the failure of the eggs has been some-what made up for by the excellent views of the adults we have been getting. The birds have been having a lovely relaxed time of it, preening and dozing on the clock tower. Both birds look very well fed and in good health, which means that they should be in excellent condition for next breeding season-fingers crossed!
It has been very quiet on the clocktower with little action to report. However, one day in the final week of the project we had a visit from a very cheeky magpie, who investigated the peregrine nest right under the noses (or should that be ceres!) of both peregrines! Fortunately for Mr Magpie, neither peregerine noticed him, lost in their own vanity they were too busy preening! What makes it worse was the fact that the RSPB had just finished explaing that peregrines are one of nature's great predators-thanks guys, made us look like right mugs!
All that remains is for me to thank you for your interest in this project. We have met so many enthusiastic people and have heard some fantastic wildlife stories. Please keep watching those birds! Hope to see you all next year!
I went to The Green Man Festival last weekend and saw some amazing bands including Dirty Three, Beach House, Vetiver and Peter Broderick. Meanwhile visitors to the Pop Peth exhibition in Oriel 1, St Fagans:National History Museum have been letting us know about their favourite gigs.
Becky loved Sugababes, Jacob Price (who's 4) went to see Automatic at the Big Weekend in Cardiff. Cat saw the Manic Street Preachers on the eve of the millennium. Huw's best gig was Deep Purple at St Davids Hall in 1996. Vanessa loved The Who at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Seven more people said that Take That in Cardiff was their best gig and Rachel saw Brian Wilson at Glastonbury and cried...
Dinorwig Quarry. With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution slate was used to cover the roofs of factories and houses throughout Britain, mainland Europe as well as towns in North America and other parts of the world.
Quarrymen at Dinorwig Quarry.
Dinorwig Quarry auction catalogue. December 1969
End of the line
On 22nd August 1969 silence came to Dinorwig Quarry. After almost 200 years of hard toil, the quarry was closed and the men were sent home for the last time.
Not only did 350 men lose their jobs but a quarrying community and a way of life that had existed since the 1780's changed forever.
Everyone in the area had lived in the shadow of Dinorwig Quarry all their lives. Everyone had a father, grandfather, husband, uncle or brother who had worked there. A century earlier, closure would have been unimaginable. Dinorwig was one of the two largest slate quarries in the world ‐ and, along with its neighbour at Penrhyn, Bethesda, could produce more roofing slates in a year than all other combined slate mines and quarries world-wide.
Dinorwig Quarry's demise didn't happen overnight. Things hadn't been going well for a number of years for various reasons:
there was less demand for slate in the UK during the 20th century;
Welsh slate was expensive compared to roofing tiles and slate from overseas;
the quarry owners were competing against one another for a share of a fairly small market;
Dinorwig Quarry hadn't been developed effectively. The slate that was easy to get at had been quarried by the 60s and investment was needed to develop further. The quarry owners didn't have the money for this investment. One of their mistakes was to invest heavily in Marchlyn Quarry, but this part of the mountain didn't make them any money. There was no slate worth working there at all;
by the late 1960s, the quarry depended on orders from France to survive. In July 1969, these orders stopped. The final nail in the coffin.
By the 1960s, the slate industry in general was facing an uncertain future.
What next?
Many of the 350 who lost their work found other jobs, some locally, at Ferodo and Peblig Mills, others further afield at Dolgarrog, Trawsfynydd and Holyhead. Others went even further to find work — to Corby, the relatively new steel town in Northamptonshire.
October and December, 1969 saw the auctions — selling off anything and everything that was worth carrying from the workshops. Fortunately for us, here at the Museum, Hugh Richard Jones, Dinorwig Quarry's Chief Engineer, ensured that not everything was sold. With the help of like-minded visionaries, he was instrumental in ensuring that the water wheel wasn't broken up and taken away and in preserving the machinery in the workshops.
Three years following the closure of Dinorwig Quarry, in 1972, the National Slate Museum was opened at Gilfach Ddu, and Hugh Richard Jones became its first manager.
So many of you have said that the recent Take That concerts were your favourite gigs ever!
Here's what else you've been enjoying.....
Beyonce
Cage the Elephant
Nina Simone
Pulbic Enemy
The Cure
Oasis
Kiss
Rolling Stones lots of you have loved the Stones.... -
Euros Childs
Catatonia (lots of people have picked them!)
Super Furry Animals
Genod Droog
John Cale
Kings of Leon
Manic Street Preachers
Uriah Heep
Please email to let me know your favourite gig as well as your thoughts and comments about the Pop Peth exhibition at St Fagans:National History Museum.
Dinorwig Quarry. With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution slate was used to cover the roofs of factories and houses throughout Britain, mainland Europe as well as towns in North America and other parts of the world.
