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more than 200 countries.
In the 19th century, the
quarries of North Wales were
major providers of roofing
materials and slate products
throughout the world.
Similarly, the associated
technologies of quarrying and
transport infrastructure were
also exported worldwide. At
its peak, the Welsh quarrying
industry was extracting about
500 000t/year of slate. Today,
production is a tenth of
that, as cheap, cement-based
products have dominated the
construction market.
According to Dr Jana Horak,
the head of mineralogy and
petrology at the National
Museum of Wales, slate has
been used since the Roman
occupation of Britain (circa
AD77) and was exported
The quarries of north-west
Wales have been nominated
for Unesco World Heritage Site
status.
A panel of experts, in the
recent UK summer, assessed
the slate landscape around the
county of Gwynedd, in North
Wales, and the nomination will
be formally presented to the
United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural
Organisation’s (Unesco) World
Heritage Centre in 2019.
A decision on the application
will not be delivered before
2021. As part of the campaign
to secure World Heritage Site
status, school pupils have sent
slate from northern Wales
quarries to world leaders.
Students at the Ysgol y
Moelwyn bilingual secondary
school in Gwynedd sent a
piece of slate branded with the
Penryhn Quarry is one of the few active slate quarries in Wales today
Penryhn Quarry is one of a series of quarries in north-west Wales that
have been nominated for Unesco World Heritage Site status.
during the Middle Ages.
The industry took off during
the height of the Industrial
Revolution.
The quarrying industry
helped foster traditional
Welsh culture. As the quarries
grew, so did the villages of
Deniolen and Clwt y Bont,
which were situated up the hill
alongside Dinorwig Quarry.
At its height, Dinorwig
Quarry employed around
3 000 workers. Quarrying
communities created their
own democratic structures,
including workers’ chapels,
while also contributing
financial support to Bangor
University.
Innovative uses are constantly
being found for concrete.
Two bodies were found in
Thailand, stuffed with concrete
and wrapped in sacks and
fishing nets. ‘Cement shoes’ or
‘Chicago overcoat’ is a largely
fictional method of execution
and/or body disposal, usually
associated with criminals
such as the Mafia or gangs.
It involves weighting down
the victim, who may be dead
or alive, with concrete and
throwing them into the water in
the hope the body will never be
found. In the US, the term has
become tongue-in-cheek for
a threat of death by criminals.
Only one real-life case has ever
been authenticated.
Cement shoes involve first
binding, incapacitating, or
killing the victim and then
placing each foot into a bucket
or box, which is then filled
with wet concrete. Typically, in
movies and novels, the victim
is still alive as they watch the
www.quarryonline.co.za
Concrete used in ‘mummification’
Gangsters throwing corpses
weighed down by ‘cement shoes’
is actually a myth.
concrete harden, heightening
the torture and drama. After
the concrete sets, the living
victim/corpse is thrown into
a river, lake, or the ocean.
Although called ‘cement’, it is
technically concrete.
The discovery in Thailand is
more gruesome, involving not
gangland wars but two people
identified as anti-government
activists. Their hands and feet
were bound, their faces were
disfigured, and their bodies had
been stuffed with concrete.
QUARRY SA | MARCH/APRIL 2019_11