This book was announced at the NAMHO 2014 Conference in Bangor and is long awaited, I'm offering this post free at www.moorebooks.co.uk - Mike
Welsh Slate, Archaeology and History of an Industry
David Gwyn, HB, 288pp £45
Publishers Synopsis - Slates from quarries in Wales once went to roof the world. By the late nineteenth century as many as a third of all the roofing slates produced worldwide came from Wales, competing with quarries in France and the United States. This book traces the industry from its origins in the Roman period, its slow medieval development and then its massive expansion in the nineteenth century – as well as through its long drawn-out decline in the twentieth.
Dr David Gwyn lives in Pen y Groes, in the Nantlle slate region of Gwynedd. He has worked in archaeology for 20 years, and is co-tutor on the annual slate quarry Practical Industrial Archaeology courses run by the Snowdonia National Park at their study centre, Plas Tan y Bwlch.
CONTENTS
Foreword: Professor R. Merfyn Jones CBE
Author's Preface
Introduction
The Landscapes of the Slate Industry
The Archaeology of Slate Products
Extraction and Tipping
Prime Movers and Power Systems
Drainage, Pumping and Ventilation
Processing
Internal Transport Systems
Workshops and Maintenance
Offices and Administration
Health and Welfare
Settlement and Community
Overland Transport Systems
Maritime Transport
A Wider World
Bibliography
List of Figures
List of Principal Sites
Index