Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Negative showing a quarryman at Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda splitting slate, with one other quarryman looking in. The quarryman is splitting ‘Bangor Queens’. ‘Queens’ were the largest size of roofing slates produced by the slate quarries – measuring between 28 and 36 inches in length. Roofing slates’ names and sizes were standardized in 1738 when General Hugh Warburton (joint owner of the Penrhyn Estate at the time) devised the famous ‘female nobility’ names for slates of different sizes (measured in inches). The naming system soon became the industry standard, although the sizes varied slightly from time to time and area to area. As the slate is so large the quarryman is splitting the slate from a standing position rather than sitting on a ‘blocyn tîn’ (a slate splitter’s seat). In the negative the slate is being cleaved using two chisels, ‘cynion manhollt’ (wide and thin chisels used to split slate). Taken at Ponc Red Lion - Penrhyn Quarry’s main dressing floor.