We have lift off!! (And good luck to the astronauts as well) - my history of the Oakeley Quarries "Oakeley Slate" will be uploaded to AditNow as time goes by - the first section, the lists of contents and my introduction is now online. The rest of the text will follow shortly, and then the diagrams and illustrations (which may take rather longer).

Many thanks to my editors and friends at Adit publications for permission to take this approach, and grateful thanks to Simon for the technical means and resources to do so.

Updates will be posted as progress is made.

Grahami

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Yay!!!! Great!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:;D

Looking forward to it.

I would certainly be happy to put my hand in my pocket for a hard copy - any plans for an "old school" book?

Many thanks Graham, its always a pleasure to read anything you have written & a joy to pour over your maps & plans, something the missus might say I do a little too much of.:thumbsup:

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This is a wonderful resource, thank you for sharing it Graham.

And I do hope the physical book appears on day too :thumbup:

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http://www.aditnow.co.uk/Mines/Oakeley-Slate-Mine_8/  and look towards the top of the right hand column - Special Features, then The Oakeley Files.

In due course I'll add a dedicated web page for it, which will include the links to the downloads; but will be easier to get to.

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fantastic. looking forward to reading it. Sure it will answer many questions and clear up a lot of puzzles ! :thumbsup:

Graham, will you have the text online by Christmas? : 🙂

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Looking forward to it.

I would certainly be happy to put my hand in my pocket for a hard copy - any plans for an "old school" book?

Yes would really like to see it in book form eventually. and wouldn't hesitate to buy a copy.

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Looking forward to it.

I would certainly be happy to put my hand in my pocket for a hard copy - any plans for an "old school" book?

Yes would really like to see it in book form eventually....

No pressure then Graham....;)

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The problem is simply
Who will put the money up front for a print run?

Offers on the back of an envelope please.;(

The problem is simply
Who will put the money up front for a print run?

Offers on the back of an envelope please.;(

(1) Crowd fund it - open up a subscribers list. The way book publishing tends to work is cover price is 3x cost. A company like Short run in Exeter will do you a run of say 300. Pre sell 100 copies (shouldn't be too difficult) and the print run is paid for.

(2) Approach a commercial publisher.

(3) Approach someone like Welsh Mines society.

(3) Self fund.

How was the recent Cwmorthin reprint funded?

Have I filled the back of the envelope yet?

I certainly would buy a copy.

Fantastic read so far!

Great work!

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Update: The main text Part One 1800-1889 has now been uploaded. It has been the subject of most editing and revision and is (almost) fully referenced. The figure references are, however, subject to drift and revision, as you can imagine from the figure lists in the contents already posted.

Grahami

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fantastic. looking forward to reading it. Sure it will answer many questions and clear up a lot of puzzles ! :thumbsup:

Graham, will you have the text online by Christmas? : :)

1. I wouldn't bet on it and
2. here are the remaining two main parts.

Parts 2 and 3 are in their raw state which they have been in for many years - when I can I'll update them and bring them into line with part 1, especially with regard to referencing etc. and also with respect to Cwmorthin.

I'll start work on the figures next - enough for tonight

Thanks all for the kind comments so far. With regard to hard copy, one of the purposes in doing this is to ascertain the potential demand/market for it, while ensuring that it is all available. I can do things on here which i can't do in hard copy - especially with regard to the maps and surveys, so they will complement each other.

Best wishes for the season

Grahami

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I think I'm going to be a fair while digesting that amount of in depth detail. Many thanks.

Merry Xmas.

Looks very impressive - so much detail! (I have just done a quick skim through) can't wait for an in depth read which will probably be over Christmas.

Very many thanks indeed, Graham for finally making this available 😉

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For clarity, some of the people behind Adit Publications would consider arranging a printed book by subscription, subject to their being sufficient demand, and Graham is supportive of this approach. However please don't email me that you want one yet since there is still a lot of work to finish the manuscript and diagrams. In addition with a subject as complicated as this I genuinely believe that some discussion with a wider and informed audience, before printing, will ultimately result in a more polished history.

Having read most of the manuscript myself it is hard to imagine a quarry with a more involved history since it was worked as three separate undertakings for many years and as a direct result of this suffered the largest fall in the history of the Welsh Slate Industry. I hope Graham does not mind me stealing some of his thunder but the build up to the Great Fall reads like a thriller.

I think it is also worth mentioning that if people do have historic photographs of Oakeley hidden away then now is the time to make them available.

A great work well done.
One small point as I prefer a hard copy I set to and print it. There is some thing up with the page numbers in part one.
If you go by chapter numbers all is well

am printing as well, as just too much to read comfortably off my laptop, and never fully trusting computers, I much prefer a hard copy. The availability of this has made my week, and printing is quick and easy at work 😉

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Hi
An excellent piece of research and very readable.
I also would prefer a hard copy, in fact I would need 2 copies.
I would be happy to be a subscriber, pay up front, whatever.

Yes - I was having trouble with page numbers and header and footers in part one as word stubbornly keeps renumbering things back to some origin which isn't there - and I can't find out why! Everytime I deleted the page numbers - it put them back wrong! ;(;(;( Apologies to all inconvenienced by this - it's something to sort out in peace and quiet. It managed to lose all my latest edits overnight on Tuesday and I had to re-enter them before posting - so maybe it screwed the page numbers again at the same time.

An update to the figures list is necessary as I work my way through trying to reconcile the actual figures with three different edited versions..... I'll post as soon as it makes sense.:curse:

Grahami

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