A bit overdone

We stayed at an out of the way B&B in Wales. Near a town called Penrhyndeudraeth (pronounced “???”). While there I went for a quick stroll before dinner. Along the way a couple of things occurred to me. There were plenty of Sheep (a sheep port would have been great to build a settlement on [bit of Catan humor]), and there was plenty of slate. So much slate, in fact, that it was used for everything. Building fences, houses, shingles, roads, placemats, etc.

Here it is incorporated into the houses

And here it is in situ (GSA scale card for... well scale obviously).



And the sheep (well rams):

We also visited a slate mine in the area. It is still active, but they have set aside some of the chambers for tourism purposes. Most of my pictures did not turn out (a bit dark, so I had to increase the exposure time. Without a tripod, that makes my shots a tad shakey). This shot was taken in one of the chambers that had been opened to the surface. Each chamber would be worked for ~14 years before it was finished and the miners would (if I recall correctly) make 6p a week. Black lung disease was also a problem for these individuals, and would often be unable to continue working beyond the age of 40. They were also required to go to church several times during the week and THREE times on their one day off (sunday).