The Slate Industry – Dinorwig Quarry
A collection of film negatives taken by E. Emrys Jones and others in the 1950s and 1960s.
The negatives show the slate industry in north Wales, concentrating on the Dinorwig slate quarry. Many images are of the Dinorwig quarry workshops (Gilfach Ddu) which is now the Welsh Slate Museum, and part of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.
The Dinorwig Quarry was cut into the side of the Elidir Mountain, overlooking the village of Llanberis. The ‘Ceiliog Mawr’ (Big Cockerel) is a large igneous intrusion within the Quarry. Several attempts were made to ‘slaughter the cockerel’, including the blast illustrated in some of the images, which took place in 1896. However, none of these attempts were completely successful and the imposing buttress can still be seen today by visitors to the National Slate Museum, sited in the Victorian workshops, in the shadow of the mountain.
These images from Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales were digitised as a result of a gift to the Museum by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation in 2011.
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