Cambrian age Welsh slate: a global heritage stone resource from the United Kingdom

Slate from the Cambrian succession of North Wales
is a well-known source of building products from the
United Kingdom and is here advocated as a suitable
“Global Heritage Stone Resource”. Its first recorded use
was in the Roman period in Wales, and subsequently from
the sixteenth century throughout the British Isles. During
the 16th and 17th centuries several small companies
worked the slate belt from Bethesda to the Nantlle valley
but in the mid-18th these were gradually taken over or
amalgamated and three large operations came to
dominate the industry: Penrhyn, Dinorwic, and the Moel
Tryfan to Dorothea group of quarries. From the late
eighteenth century production expanded rapidly
supplying markets worldwide especially to northern
Europe and the British colonies. Slate has been used in
all its forms but most notably as roofing slates in the
construction of buildings at all levels in society and for
buildings of the highest historical and architectural
importance. Modernisation of the industry has enabled
Cambrian Welsh Slate to continue to be quarried today
in an environmentally sensitive manner by Welsh
Slate Ltd.