Casgliadau Arlein

Negative showing a quarryman at Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda splitting slate, with two 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). In front of the quarryman there is a ‘trafael’ (a bench with a fixed iron blade – used when dressing the slate), and on the trafael there is a ‘Rhys Bach’ (a mallet made of African Oak – used with a chisel to split slate) and a cŷn manhollt (wide and slim chisel). One of the other two quarrymen is holding a slate which has already been split to size. Taken at Ponc Red Lion - Penrhyn Quarry’s main dressing floor. One of Penrhyn Quarry’s water balances can be seen in the background – probably the water balance for Sinc Bach