Day Dwy ar bymtheg “two on fifteen” (17) – August 3 – Conwy Wales

by The Travel Guy

As we’ve travelled around the UK we seen a predominance of homes with slate roofs.  In Culross there were a lot of red clay tile roofs, but this was only because the ships taking coal to the continent needed to have some ballast for the return voyage that they loaded the hold with clay tiles.  There are a number of places in Wales that currently mine slate, but if you go back more than 100 years they were going underground to mine seams of slate.  Colin and Monica helped Jeff determine the available trains that would work for us to visit Blaenau Ffestiniog to see the Llechwedd (lek-weth) Slate Caverns and the Rheilffordd Ffestiniog Railway.

Deana securing her helmet for the train trip underground into the Llechwedd Slate mine.

The word SLATE is derived from the Old French verb esclater, meaning “to split”.  Although it is applied to a wide variety of stones possessing some degree of splitting properties, the world’s finest example is Welsh slate (according to a Welsh publication) – the superb Ordovician blue-grey variety in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area.

In Llechwedd there are 5 beds – known in the mines as veins. The veins are sandwiched between layers of hard chert (we were told this was granite).  The veins of slate do not run horizontally but instead at an angle of approx. 30 degrees, approximately parallel to the slope of the mountain. The company built the tunnel into the mountain so that on one level it would run along the length of the veins.  At the Llechwedd mine there are 5 veins but the tunnels were dug at 16 different levels. The amount of chert between the veins would vary and the challenge for the company was to tunnel only into veins that would run a long distance and not be just a pocket of slate.

The “Surveyor” would walk down the tunnel and mark on the walls with white paint where a 36 ft “chamber” would start and where it would end.  Then he’d measure off another 30 ft. of rock to be left as support, then another 36 ft. for the next chamber.  The 30 ft stretch, although perfectly good slate, was calculated to line up with the 30 ft of support on the level above and below and this would maintain the integrity of the mine.  You didn’t want to have the weight of 30 ft. of “supporting” rock sitting overtop of a chamber that was being hollowed out or it could lead to a collapse.  We were told that there were 256 chambers spread across 16 levels in this mine.

The weighted poles used to “drill” holes through the slate

What was really interesting was the “ownership” of each chamber.  A group of 4 miners would be given a chamber and they were then responsible for working the chamber and removing all of the slate.  This could take up 12-15 years.  Two would work in the chamber and the other two worked in the “factory” on the surface where they were assigned a bench to split the slate.  The workers in the chambers would use a 7 ft. long steel pole with a 10 lbs weight about 12 inches from one end.  The end of the pole was sharpened by the “Smithie” (blacksmith) near the factory and they would drop the pole onto a spot and give it a turn to loosen some material then lift and drop the pole again.  Over the course of 4 hours they would create a whole into the slate (which is much softer than granite).  When the depth of the hole reached the weight they would switch the pole around and use the longer end. In the pictures you can see how clean the holes were made.  Once they had reached the depth they desired they would swab it out with some moss threaded through the eye of an oversized needle and then carefully pack the whole with gun powder.

A bore hole perpendicular to the slant of the slate

Dynamite couldn’t be used because it was too powerful and it would break the slate into little pieces. To make a fuse a piece of string was pulled through a rag full of tar to make it sticky and then it would be coated with gun powder and tamped into the powder at the bottom of the hole.  They’d light the fuse and then yell “RUN” …. or something similar and vacate the chamber into the tunnel for the blast.  After the blast they would return to the chamber and start removing the pieces of slate.  They would pile them on a cart in a “load” that would be a manageable size for transport to the surface.

Our guide describing the technique for boring holes in front of the cart used to transport a “load” of slate to the surface and the other half of the team

The group of 4 men would usually hire a fifth person as a “labourer” to move the slate to the surface and also keep the chamber tidy by removing the chert.  In a year, an average chamber would produce 1,200 tons of slate and 2,000 tons of chert and waste material.  An inspector would regularly come around to each chamber and examine the load of slate and they would haggle over the value of the slate.  We were told that a common value was 12 shillings per load and in some cases they would move 1,000 loads/day to the factory for splitting.  They started work at 7am Monday to Friday and worked until 4:30. On Saturday they finished at 1pm.  On Sunday they attended Sunday school which was their opportunity to learn to read and write.  Literacy was at an amazing level in the slate mining families due to the Sunday schools.  They were expected to attend church 3 times on Sunday and several times throughout the week as well.  In the small town of Blaenau Ffestiniog there were 37 churches and only 22 bars in those days, so that gives you an idea of which one was given greater importance.

Deana walking through the mine shaft, note the smooth underside of the slate on the left and rough rock on the right

Due to the working conditions the fine white powder would coat the lungs of the miners and they generally developed a lung disease called Silicosis, caused by breathing in silica dust. As a result, miners, who frequently started as young as 10 years old, would have progressively diminished lung capacity until they finally died shortly after they turned 40.  Women in the mines were deemed to be bad luck, so they were not permitted to work there.  Sounds like women probably started that myth!

Typical height of the 36′ wide chamber. This one happened to reach the surface so there was a lot more light available

One of the 256 underground chambers, lite up with some different coloured lights for better effects

The chair and simple tools used on the surface to split the slate into very thin, flat pieces of slate.

A splitter separating two halves of the slate block

Typical use of the slate on the roof

Notice the high piles of discarded slate pieces and rock material above Blaneau Ffestiniog

Coal fired steam locomotive to take it’s load to the coast, and back again

Fireman working his fire to get the most of the coal

After the tours we walked back into Blaenau Ffestiniog and took a ride on the narrow gauge steam train towards the coast.  In 1836 the line was completed and began transporting the slate to the deep water port at Porthmadog.  They’ve done a great job of creating comfortable coaches with large windows to give you a wide open view of the beautiful Welsh scenery.  Unlike so many restored steam locomotives that are heated by diesel fuel, this train’s tender was full of coal and the man tending the fire in the boiler was covered in soot.  At one stop he got down onto the track and used a long steel pole to move the coal.  You could see how how hot the furnace was by the orange glow that illuminated his face. The train is somewhat of a novelty but it did afford us a good view of more of the country side and at one point the train passed almost directly above what appeared to be yet another castle, perched on the side of the valley.

Chugging our way to the coast

Time didn’t permit us to make it all the way to Porthmadog, so we turned around at Minffordd for the return to Blaenau Ffestiniog in time to catch the last regular Welsh Highland Railway train back to Llandudno on the north coast.

Unique use of the excess slate to direct you to the “Arts Centre”

From there we walked from Llandudno Junction across the Conwy river with the Conwy Castle rising to greet us.

Deana and Jeff with the Conwy Castle in the background

We went to the pub just around the corner from our B&B for a pint of ale (for Jeff) and lager (for Deana).

The Albion pub, just around the corner from our B&B – no food, just good beer

We’d been there the night before as well, but tonight it was quite busy.  We stood at the bar for a few minutes and then looked into what at one time had been the “Smoking Room” and saw a couple of chairs near a couple in one corner.  We asked if the seats were taken and they invited us to sit down.  We soon learned that Margaret and Victor were Welsh and they had just come to this pub because they enjoyed the locally brewed ale.  They were extremely interesting and we learned a great deal about the Welsh culture and language.  Although the language was in decline the students are now taught both Welsh language and literature as well as English and the language is starting to thrive again.  The cost of having to translate everything into both Welsh and English was similar to the situation we experienced when we lived in New Brunswick and everything relating to the government was recorded in both English and French.  They lived on the island of Anglesey, that we would be travelling across on our way to Holyhead for the ferry to Ireland.  We talked about some of the issues currently facing Anglesey, like the need to refresh their nuclear power plant and the use of wind turbines, like the ones we saw from the train on our way to Wales yesterday.  After we finished our Ales they invited us to join them for dinner at one of their favourite restaurants. in Llandudno.  It was a terrific dinner and then Margaret and Victor gave us a tour of Llandudno and the Great Orme before returning us to our B&B.

It was an absolutely wonderful evening with a truly delightful couple.  We exchanged contact information and offered them a place to stay and a personal tour of our part of Canada.  We really hope to return to this part of Wales at some time in the not too distance future.

Over the course of the evening we also learned a little bit about the Welsh language.

“FF” makes the “f” sound as in “fairy”

“CH” makes the “c” sound as in “cat”

“DD” makes the “th” sound as in “thistle”