Review: Welsh Slate
From Planet 224
Stephen Kay reviews
Welsh Slate: Archaeology and History of an Industry
by David Gwyn
RCAHMW, £45.00
Blaenau Ffestiniog is not Bath or Venice, nor Machu Picchu, but it is a town in an extraordinary setting, a landscape of heroic sculpture that extends over much of north-west Wales. When the boundaries of the Snowdonia National Park were defined, the slate might have been regarded as sordid industrial remains, but visitors can now admit to excitement and awe. Unlike the coal industry, the story of slate has not been hidden by reclamation; its physical legacy remains to commemorate an extractive industry and the men whose toil created it. Its sites are soon to be nominated for inclusion on the World Heritage list.
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