Gwynedd Council has welcomed the government’s announcement that the county’s slate producing areas are included on the UK shortlist for new World Heritage Sites which is to be submitted to UNESCO.
The slate industry employed thousands of people and brought prosperity to the area during its heyday in the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Its legacy still stands today and can be seen and heard in the area’s landscape, infrastructure, history, traditions, language and colloquialisms.
Already, thousands of people visit the area each year and get a taste of how Gwynedd slate was produced and exported to the four corners of the world; the industry’s impact on the culture and way of life of the local communities and to see for themselves how it carved its mark on the area’s landscape.
It is now hoped that an association with the UNESCO seal of approval will give the area a further leg up as a tourism hub. Other Welsh World Heritage Sites include the Edward I chain of North Wales castles, Blaenafon Historic Landscape and the Pontcysyllte aqueduct and canal – all of which are major tourist and heritage attractions.
Leader of Gwynedd Council, Councillor Dyfed Edwards, said: “This is great news, I am delighted that the government has recognised the global significance of the Gwynedd slate quarrying industry, and am now looking forward to working with Gwynedd’s slate communities and our partners to develop our submission to UNESCO.
“The evidence of the industry’s impact is here all around us – the striking landscape, industrial buildings, steam railways and slate quays and rows of quarrymen’s cottages and the remnants of the technological advances of the time. The piles of ballast on our shores show us the industry’s impact not only here but also around the world.
“Quarry life has also left its mark on the cultural, social and political landscape of the area too.”
The slate producing industry does not remain solely in the past – it continues to employ over a 1,000 people in the region today and contributes £31 million to the local economy and Gwynedd’s slate industry still produces over half the slates produced in the UK annually
Gwynedd Council and its partners are already investing in contemporary projects to regenerate and make the most of what the slate producing areas offer today, including:
- the £4M Blaenau Ffestiniog regeneration project;
- redevelopment of the Glyn Rhonwy quarry, Llanberis as a strategic business development site;
- the Welsh Assembly Government’s Môn-Menai Strategic Regeneration Area which includes the Ogwen, Nantlle and Peris slate valleys;
- the Slate Wales Initiative which fosters co-operation between slate producers and the tourism , heritage and cultural sectors for mutual benefit
