Collections Online

Negative showing a quarryman at Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda dressing (naddu) slate, with two other quarryman looking in. The quarryman is dressing (naddu) ‘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. The quarryman is sat on the ‘trafael’ (a bench with a fixed iron blade), dressing the slate using a ‘cyllell naddu’ (a slate trimming knife). As the slate is so large it is supported by one of the other quarrymen. Taken taken at Ponc Red Lion - Penrhyn Quarry’s main dressing floor.