Sepia albumen print

Acc.no: PEZPH : 2016.50.597

Identification

Item: Delabole Slate Quarries.

Description: A view into the Delabole Slate Quarries which were about 1 mile in circumference and 300 ft deep. Slate from here was sent all over the country and continent. Delabole Village grew up around the quarry. The slate has been quarried since Medieval times and possibly for 1000 years. It has been commercially operated for 600 years. The quarry itself is half a mile long, a quarter of a mile wide across a 400 ft drop. During Elizabethan times, five separate and smaller quarries existed. In 1806, Robert Blake, the owner, gave John Wesley land, materials and £40 to build a chapel at Delabole. In 1841, the five quarries combined to form one. By 1859, 1000 men were employed producing 120 tons of slate per day. By 1898, they became a limited company. In 1977, the company moved into corporate hands, but this era was short lived and by 1999 a management buy out returned the quarry to local ownership; 40 people were employed. In 2005, the quarry returned to one family ownership. Today only five people are employed in the actual quarry and using the latest diamond saws, 600 tonne blocks are sawn from the quarry face. The five men can still produce 120 tonnes of slate block each day. Source: www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Delabole-Slate-Quarry-4761/

Condition: Good

Description

Material: Photographic paper

Production

Method: Printed

Category: Photography

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