The History of Honister Slate

It is believed that the first slate was probably mined from the Honister area in the Roman era, although it is quite possible that it began in a more haphazard way in prehistoric times. Certainly, slate roofing was a feature of many thirteenth century monastic buildings and it has been used as a building material in the region for many centuries.

However, the first confirmed records of slate mining in Honister do not appear until the early 1700s. The Lakeland poet, William Wordsworth even makes reference to slate quarrying in his diaries.

Quarrying on a significant scale was taking place in the 1750s and, from 1833, under the managerial eye of entrepreneur Sam Wright, the business expanded with the creation of underground mines as well as open quarries. Following the creation of the Buttermere Green Slate Company in 1879, 'inclines’ were built to carry the finished slates away. Previously, they had been carried by packhorse, or by sleds running precariously down the scree slopes to the road. After 1892, The Hause became the centre of operations and was linked to the quarries by road, tramway, aerial ropeway (1928) and huge inclines inside the mountain (1930s).

Learn more about this historic site
by clicking on the links below:
1. The history of transport at Honister from the earliest times
2. Pack pony 'trains' across the remote Lakeland fells
3. Hand-sledging from the high workings down to the valley
4. Honister's railways
5. Honister's huge underground inclines
6. The Yew Crag tramway
7. The Rescue of Honister

The slate workers lived at Honister (often inside the mines) during the week, going home at weekends. In the twentieth century, some stayed in 'barracks' at The Hause and the company built some houses for its workers in Borrowdale.

The slate was extracted in large blocks or 'clogs', which were first 'docked' or reduced in size with chisel and mallet, cutting across the grain. After 1856, this process was replaced by sawing. The docked or sawn block was then 'rived', or split down the grain, and the resulting thin slates were dressed to shape on a 'slate anvil' using a slate knife or 'whittle'. This process was also mechanised in the 1890s. Slates were finished in stone-built huts on the mountain near the quarries, or in the mines, until the construction of a factory at The Hause in the 1920s. Honister slate was used extensively in local buildings but the best quality roofing slate was exported far afield.

Many of these traditional skills are still practised today by workers at our mine, who give regular demonstrations of riving and the other techniques involved in turning large blocks of stone into elegant and functional materials such as roofing slates and paving stones.

Watch the following clip and see how our
skilled craftman still use the same traditional
methods today - creating a 36" roofing slate