PMP2000 > Places > Charnwood History

INDUSTRIES

SLATE:
SWITHLAND was famous for SLATE QUARRYING. The best known and most productive quarries around the village were those in SWITHLAND WOOD, east of THE BRAND ("DANVERS QUARRY"), and at HANGINGSTONE HILLS EAST.

The earliest evidence of slate use in this area dates from ROMAN times when it was acquired from natural outcrops rather than deep quarries. Diamond shapes ROMAN SLATE ROOF TILES have been found all over CHARNWOOD and beyond.

The next direct evidence is found in the Borough records of the 1260s and then again in the MAYOR'S ACCOUNTS for 1305-6. Ten years later, slates were priced at 2/2d per thousand. (Just over 10p). There are numerous accounts and records of SWITHLAND SLATE throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, when it was used for roofing LEICESTER CASTLE, ROTHLEY TEMPLE and LEICESTER GUILDHALL, among many, many others. It was a little after this when slate began to be used for things other than roofing. For example, arches and floors in NEWARKE and drains and cellars in BRADGATE.

Engravings began to be seen in the late 16th century but it was not until the later 17th century when SLATE HEADSTONES began to become popular.

It was the 18th century when gained it's greatest popularity, being used for just about anything and everything, including sundials, clock faces, millstones, cisterns and gate posts. The reasons for this increase at this time are unclear. It has been suggested that quarry owners may have started to use gunpowder to exploit their quarries to greater and greater depths. Another reason could have been the new canals which made slate transport much easier than it had been previously.

But the 19th century saw a steady decline in the SWITHLAND SLATE industry. Ironically, one of the contributory reasons for this was also transport. In 1831, the long standing transport tax on the carriage of slate by sea was repealed by PITT. This led very quickly to the shipping of Welsh slate into Liverpool and, from there, by canal to the rest of the country. This, combined with the rapid rise of rail transport soon meant an influx of cheap Welsh slate. The effect on SWITHLAND slate was devastating and by 1842, only two small local quarries were still operating.

An attempted revival of the industry by the ELLIS family in the 1860s was short lived and by 1876 only one SWITHLAND SLATE QUARRY was still working. By 1883, all but one quarry were flooded and by 1889 the SWITHLAND SLATE INDUSTRY was at an end.

FROM "A COMPANION TO CHARNWOOD" (1858):

"Here are fine sections of the slate, from 100 to 120 feet thick, traversed by a narrow but unbroken band of quartz, varying from a few lines to several inches in breadth. A stratum of red marl lies uncomfortably upon the edges of the highly-inclined strata of the slate".