Slate Industry, The

- Blurb -

Slate from British quarries roofed the world. For a period in the nineteenth century, ships exported thousands of tons of roofing slate from the UK to an international market. The slate industry has a long and fascinating history, and this book tells the story of the industry, starting with the formation of the rock and the properties that make it so suitable as a roofing material. The development of slate as a roofing material drive the business of extraction, but many other slate products have been made as well, including writing slates, electrical installations and even snooker tables. Slate craft as an art form is also something we shall cover in the book.Slate is synonymous with North Wales, where a bid for World Heritage Site status is being made for the landscape formed by quarrying, but this book also looks at the slates of Leicestershire, Cornwall and Cumbria. The processes, products and transport of slate are all explored covered, as is the life and communities of the quarrymen. Finally, the book looks at the enormous physical remains of the quarries themselves, sometimes developed as tourist attractions and at other times left as landscape features ripe for exploration and discovery.