OLDEST - Working Slate Quarry in England - Delabole, Cornwall
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SMacB
N 50° 37.235 W 004° 43.441
30U E 378046 N 5609051
The Delabole slate quarry is one of the largest of its type in England and has been operated continuously from the 15th-century making it the oldest working slate quarry in England.
Waymark Code: WMTEJ6
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 11/12/2016
Views: 0
"The Delabole slate quarry is one of the largest of its type in England and has been operated continuously from the 15th-century making it the oldest working slate quarry in England. Indeed, it is reputed that slate has been quarried here since the reign of King Stephen. In the reign of Elizabeth I the five quarries on the site of the now larger pit assumed considerable importance delivering slate to Brittany and the Netherlands. In 1841 the five quarries were combined to make the Old Delabole Slate Quarry.
The Old Delabole Slate Quarry Ltd was liquidated in 1977 by the company's bankers. It was run under receivership by Rio Tinto Zinc until 1999 when a local management team bought it out. In 2005, the majority shareholders bought out the entire share capital, creating a single family ownership, the first time since 1842. In 1910, 500 people were employed at the quarry but this has since been reduced to 80, the decline due to the availability of cheaper roofing materials e.g. Welsh slate or prefabricated tiles. As of 2007 only five skilled men work in the pit and the total workforce is no more than forty.
Delabole Quarry was once the deepest man-made pit in the world, but this is no longer the case due to massive open cast mines and quarries in America and Australia.
The quarry was connected to a narrow gauge railway worked by steam and diesel locomotives to move the slate: this is thought to have begun before 1834 and continued in use until after 1987. The North Cornwall Railway provided a freight service from Delabole between 1893 and 1964 (passenger services ended in 1966)."
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