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Open Country

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

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Open Country: Slate Mines, Snowdonia

Slate Mines, Snowdonia

31/07/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, Slate Mines, Snowdonia

Snowdonia's slate once roofed the world. Find out what has become of the quarries today.

Snowdonia's slate once roofed the world, but that was in Victorian times. Helen Mark finds out what has become of the abandoned slate quarries and caverns today.

Snowdonia's slate once roofed the world, employing thousands of workers across scores of mines in North Wales. But that was in its heyday, in Victorian times. Today, whilst the industry still exists, it employs just 350 people.

Helen Mark finds out what's become of the abandoned slate quarries and caverns today. Some are now places of leisure, with zip wires above ground, trampolines in underground slate caverns, and with scuba diving opportunities in flooded quarries, but others, as Helen discovers at Dorothea mine, are rapidly being reclaimed by nature. 

Producer: Mark Smalley.

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