Slate quarry at Delabole, St. Teath, Cornwall. Looking north. 1907
The vast pit (c. 130 metres deep and more than a mile in circumference) that forms the Delabole Slate Quarry has been worked since at least the 17th century and still active today (2004). The grey-green, metamorphic slates are quarried from the Upper Devonian and are therefore the geologically youngest slates quarried in Britain. The Delabole Slate Quarry viewed from the top of the incline along which the slates were raised to the surface by tramways. The high quality grey-green coloured slates have been used widely on roofs throughout southern England and also shipped worldwide. The Delabole Quarry is by far the largest of the active slate quarries in Devon and Cornwall. Slates from the quarry were used on the roofs of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Truro Cathedral. The slate has been used as a building material fo over 600 years and has been quarried continuously since the early 17th century.
Photo P200499. Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey ©NERC. All rights Reserved.
This photograph is by carnkie and was uploaded December 9th 2009. © carnkie please do not copy or distribute without prior express permission.
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