Welsh Slate: Archaeology & History

Welsh Slate: Archaeology and History by David Gwyn. 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.

Includes chapters on internal transport systems and the railways used to move the slate from the mines.