You Won't See Slate The Same Way Again

Team Skill Builder visit Trevillet Quarry to find out how those roof slates are made.
Trevillet Quarry was the largest slate quarry in Tintagel and, at its height of activity, employed 200 men.
The saw house where the slate was cut up became the Maybridge Chemical Works which relocated to Loughborough.
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#quarry #slate #cornwall
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[@Jonathan_Doe_]

You’re gradually turning into the Tom Scott of building materials manufacturers tours, and I’m all for it!

[@dan-ks1yd]

you're not wrong

[@madgebishop5409]

absolutely knocking it out of the park with this series, brilliant cinematography and fascinating content!

[@harrycallaghan22]

Loving this series Roger. North Devon boy here but regularly visit Tintagel, Boscastle and other locations in Cornwall. It’s a fantastic part of the country and seeing these traditions and skills still going on is brilliant and fascinating. Well done to the skill builder team.

[@alec1113]

Britain at its best , where else would you get this dedication to produce this quality of work and all hand tooled by unassuming hard-working men . Thanks, Rog, for bringing this art to our attention . These blokes are worth their weight in gold . Absolutely Brilliant , well done

[@paul756uk2]

Absolutely love this kind of stuff. You should do a series on traditional methods still in use today.

[@Czechbound]

Great to see skilled manual work being highlighted. I hope we get to see local carpenters, metal workers, brick makers or whatever trades may be about.

[@SJWardBuilders]

Awesome!! I'll remember these highly skilled workers the next time I go to moan about the cost of slate! Keep up the fantastic work Trevillet Quarry!!! 👌

[@boriss.861]

Brilliant Roger. More of the UK's Artisans please!

[@BOOTHYNATION]

What a lovey bloke Matt is!!

[@SkillBuilder]

I found every single one of those guys lovely. As you travel West people are just more polite and considerate. They were all happy to have a chat which is what you want when you have a camera on them. I just wish we had put a microphone on them.

[@lukeh3020]

@@SkillBuilder Funny how people get nicer the further you get out of London

[@sharkeyist]

Brilliant to see. Im local and been using trevillett since early childhood, there was a time you could back up to the heap and pick out a load yourself, as a toddler i learned how to pick out a face. There used to be a short oval racetrack there too, allegedly one of the earliest in britain, circa late ‘40s early 50’s, got shut in the 80’s i think.

[@tomlee812]

Fascinating. Such skill, but like true craftsmen, they make it all look so easy.

[@TheWadetube]

I love seeing people who still know how to work with stone. I want to build a castle some day and all this adds to my knowledge and skill set

[@wendythebearboston5304]

A fascinating video. Skills that should never be lost.

[@queeg6473]

As an idiot who bought a house with 3 roofs that I need to reslate (I'm NOT a builder) this was VERY helpful. The bit about different thicknesses was something I hadn't thought about...

[@SkillBuilder]

If you have a good labourer they will sort the slates into thin, thick and medium so you can lay a whole course of the same thickness.

[@queeg6473]

@@SkillBuilder I have me. I doing everything I can myself to keep costs down (it's the ONLY way we could afford the house). I'll be reslating the 2 lower roofs, the 2 storey roof.........na......I'll get someone in for that 'cos I don't do heights !

[@tinytonymaloney7832]

Wow, what a nice place to work, no stress, no computers just basic tools. You are getting about, should, rename your channel, Holiday With Roger. Did you happen to see Olly Harrison and Co driving their combine down from John O Groats to Lands End while you were there??? 😊😊😊😊

[@ilricettario]

More of this please, brilliant.

[@minecraftlord568]

Absolutely brilliant video. Fascinating. I love the first guy you interviewed he said (of the state) “ours is everywhere.” Everywhere meaning his local part of the world. You can see Roger loves seeing young people too looking to master a craft. Absolutely brilliant.

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

Nah he meant everywhere as in worldwide. There’s a global demand, and not many good slate mines.

[@OllyParryJones]

Fascinating! Thanks for filming and sharing this. If you ever get the chance, I recommend visiting the slate museum up in Llanberis in North Wales. A different experience to meeting people and seeing the work in action.

[@SkillBuilder]

Thanks Olly I have spent quite a lot of time in llanberis climbing those Joe Brown routes. I have never visited the slate museum. I always think it is a shame when our industrial heritage is all locked away in theme parks and museums. A bit like The Big Pit Museum in South Wales. I am reminded of the words of Joni Mitchell "They took away the trees and put them in a museum then they charged you a dollar and a half just to see 'em."

[@1414141x]

So pleased to see this is still going and that there are people still being employed in this industry. I would like to see a comparison between Cornish and Welsh slate quality. I bet it ain't cheap with all that labour involved.

[@lazylad8544]

Great series. And loads of knowledge and information about different products. Also meeting the real people who work and live there. Well done all of you.👍👍. Don't let Rodger loose with that sword he might have someone's eye out.😉.

[@annakramar5088]

Loving your travels around Cornwall. What great hard working skilled guys. Very impressive🏡

[@SkillBuilder]

Glad you enjoyed it. We loved it but it is not getting enough views for us to justify more travels. I might try it on my bike next time.

[@annakramar5088]

@@SkillBuilder 🤣🤣🤣 Now that would interesting Push or Motor bike? Well I'm still watching you. I think it's great content.

[@Geeraffe]

Fascinating video, good to see the Slate master aka Obi wan Kernow-bi 👍

[@denty32]

Excellent video guys and I’m definitely staying “tuned “

[@PeterLee-zn3jl]

Slatenomics in motion.....an entire industry and several more from building with this stuff..... Pretty available , durable , and easily used.... Carry on

[@Frieslick]

Very interesting. Thanks for highlighting some under appreciated craftsmanship.. I had no idea so much of it went into the humble slate. I assumed it was all machines. Nice to see!

[@chevyimp5857]

Loving this series... Great skills on display

[@psi10001]

I absolutely love the Cornwall videos Roger, I hope you can visit again this year!

[@SkillBuilder]

Hi Rod It won't be this year but hopefully we can get down there again to catch up and see a couple of new projects that have come to light. I also hope we can find the time and money to visit some other areas.

[@westonsunset]

A great and humble video Roger! Loved it.. : )

[@robertkeyes258]

I live in a town that used to be a big name in slate, but they closed the quarry at the beginning of WW2. There's still a lot of the stuff around, and there's a slate finishing company here that charges a heck of a lot of money for the stuff. The kitchen sink surround is made from one big piece of very dark slate, I want to get more, and actually roof my house with it, but it costs so damn much money these days.

[@frankmckie2992]

Everyday is a school day, fantastic look into the world of roofing far more than just keeping the rain off the house lol ❤ this , and well done asking the guys names giving them their place on the skillful trade that they do👍

[@roymills2211]

Did a reroof on small out building once, i borrowed customers kitchen scales and weighed every slate to grade them by thickness from 20mm toabout 4mm end result look fantastic

[@moonshinepz]

Being "local" I really enjoyed this one. 👍👍

[@matthewjames1114]

More of this camera quality please Roger!

[@philbarron1148]

Brilliant Roger. Love this.

[@allsearpw3829]

Hi , a really great video and thanks to all who took part .👍

[@chelps6411]

totally brilliant episode!

[@paulnolan1352]

Good Lad Roger, the new Fred Dibnah!, very interesting video, keep ‘em coming.

[@SkillBuilder]

Paul Thanks Paul I always loved those Fred Dinah programmes. For too many years people who do the work have been air brushed out of history while we fixated on the monarchy. It makes me laugh when I hear "This castle was built by King John". No it bloody wasn't.

[@paulnolan1352]

@@SkillBuilder I totally agree Roger, I still watch Fred’s repeats and I know from experience what it takes to achieve the sort of workmanship that he demonstrated. Thanks for your reply and great content, you and the Skillbuilder team make a difference.

[@1976Datsun]

That was fantastic.

[@Marco_909]

Excellent m8 .. tks

[@flyingjackcarpentry9394]

Visited North Wales earlier this year. Learnt alot about slate mining and the history. Such a beautiful and rugged land, reduced to a tourist spot that most welsh can't afford

[@SkillBuilder]

I agree with you Jack young people can't get a look in these days. Even a little slate workers cottage is beyond their reach. I have done a lot of climbing up in Llanberis and it is a fine part of the world.

[@chelps6411]

I tried to buy some slate paving recently in north wales and was told it was from Brazil !

[@tonywilkinson9237]

You need to come and meet the Honister crew fella. Slate is harder to mine than quarries and you need to explain why mining is more difficult than quarrying. Love your videos my man. Loved your video by the way. You’ve got to promote this industry from all sides my good man. It keeps us in a skilled job? 👍🖖😎

[@ryanodea5417]

This tour was really interesting Roger. I don't think we have any slate in Western Australia but it has been quarried in the eastern states. Thanks

[@andrewdeacon4384]

Great video Roger. Looking forward to more.

[@teohz]

Incredible video. Both the topic and execution - a pleasure to watch on the Saturday morning sipping a coffee.

[@theonlykingclayton]

Another top video, Roger!!

[@andyc972]

Excellent, some real characters here !

[@2326TOM]

Thank you so much. Keep it comming

[@lolackers8636]

Brilliant content!

[@SteveAndAlexBuild]

Absolutely loved this one . So interesting to see the whole process from quarry to crate . Amazing skill with all the hand finishing. Good to see a relatively young lad on the team too . 100% English 100% natural 🤙🏾🤙🏾🧱👍🏽

[@darrenburns16]

Unbelievable skill involved with these guys. Absolutely love it.

[@295walk]

Superb!

[@goddam9925]

Amazing that was so informative thanks !!😁😁

[@eddjordan2399]

great work.

[@Bari_Khan_CEng_CMarEng]

Cracking video, great to see

[@elliejake11]

Interesting thank you 👍

[@neilgillies6943]

Now, that was a really interesting one!

[@TheChodax]

Another brilliant episode, learned so much.

[@gerrypowell2748]

Great video👌👌

[@bluenapalm123]

Really enjoyed this one. Some great visuals and knowledge. Heads and tails, nice.

[@teddimedicine]

Superbly interesting.....great watch

[@petemoring67]

Some good knowledge passed on there Roger - Especially for Non-Roofers 'Having a GO!' .... 🤠

[@nickmail7604]

Don't know if it's still the same but Cornish slate used to be more sought-after because it had a blueish colour to it whereas Welsh slate was greyer in colour.

[@OscarGarcia-wz3bi]

Very cool

[@pawelbroniewski7100]

Hi. Found this very interesting. Thank you

[@Ultimate-roofing-square.]

Fantastic video SB, very interesting. 🙌🏻

[@georgerobartes2008]

The old chap was explaining how the slate was formed from the chain of igneous intrusions from the Cornubian Batholith that created the ' stepping stones ' from Dartmoor to the Scilly Isles , which included the local Bodmin Granite plus those of St. Austell , The Cammenellis and Lands End Granites . The heat and pressure of these intrusions into the sedimdntary of the Devonian deposited by ancient seas has compacted and baked the layers of sediment to create the finer bedding planes that they follow to cleave the slates . The slate at this quarrey is from the same beds as that from the famous quarry of Delabole just a few miles away . He went on to say that it was these intrusions into the sedimentary rock strata that created not only the building material wealth of the granites , china clay , slates etc used in construction all over the UK , but also the mineral wealth of copper , tjn , tungsten , arsenic etc that forged the Industrial Revolution . It can be a little difficult to understand the Cornish accent sometimes.......

[@paulmagee8171]

Very interesting indeed!

[@vroberts3622]

Awesome

[@jasonantigua6825]

Hi Richard,I once had a quarrel in a Quarry! True story.

[@johnmaslack8628]

We have slate quarries here in Vermont in the USA...I think we have a much finer cleave overall. This slate is more like what we would call a rough texture...We used to make 3/16 as our #1 thickness but that has become 1/4 inch these last twenty or so years...

[@Jonathan-mk1ju]

What an interesting video, nice work

[@DAVID-bv2gv]

Very interesting video Roger, 👍🏻🇬🇧✅

[@steved8038]

Thank you for your reply and im sure we all hope that financially you can keep producing videos good. Luck and hope to see you for many more years.

[@benreast2382]

Excellent video, really interesting. Would love to put a roof on with those slates!

[@gingerelvis]

Been surrounded by Delabole slate my whole life and didn't realised how hands on the splitting still is. Good to see the old boys still at it and some young lads keeping it going.

[@peterwalton1502]

Slate is wonderful product just a hundred years ago the slate industry employed thousands of people.

[@glennpowell3444]

Slate is very dense.I bet my last penny new build roof trusses at their current matchstick dimensions would soon starts bowing and twisting under a triple overlay slate tiled roof.The modern composite tiles on a single overlap by comparrison are a hell off a lot lighter hence our modern matchstick roof trusses.If you look at the roof timbers in a house built before the 1950,s and look at a new build the difference in timber sizes must ne 50% less .Alot more diaganal bracing aswell.

[@SingleTrack66]

Nearly all house built before 1950 have 3”x2” rafters laid onto 4x4 or 6x4 purlins. Modern trusses whilst being thinner than 2” are at least comparable in the other dimension. Being trusses they don’t require purlins as the W form serves to both support the rafter section and hold up joist section. Nearly all new roofs that aren’t trussed use 6x2 or 8x2 timbers and will likely incorporate a roof room. Lastly certainly where I am from we hardly ever use composite slates. It’s always tiles or Brazilian slates which are both very heavy and will happily sit on trussed roofs @ 600 centres. Timber used to be far superior in both strength and durability years ago. Which is why smaller timbers could be used.

[@stephenribchester2185]

If you tell the truss manufacturer what the roofing material is they will manufacture them accordingly.

[@tlangdon12]

@@stephenribchester2185 Or better still, tell them the weight per unit of area.

[@1414141x]

Take into consideration that a lot of materials used in older buildings was overkill. They did not have the benefit of engineering specs back in those days - just experience. Materials were probably sourced locally so they were restricted by what was available and there was little standardisation. That's why we see in older buildings a variation in materials used and construction methods as you travel around the country. This has blessed Britain with a fantastic eclectic mix of older buildings. New buildings in any part of the UK look pretty much the same.

[@steved8038]

Hope your goong all around the Country !! Thank you

[@SkillBuilder]

Hi Steve We would love to do more of these but we will have to look at the viewing numbers in a few months from now to see if we can cover our costs. It might take 5 years just to break even. I don't want to play my violin but the West Country excursion cost us around £2,850 with acommodation and fuel etc. That doesn't even cover our time for filming and edit or the cost of the cameras. To be honest we have been looking at the whole future of Skill-Builder because we want to make great videos but the numbers don't add up. It is a problem for most channels now, which is why so many people are looking at membership etc. Other channels make money by selling tat but we don't want to do that either.

[@chelps6411]

@@SkillBuilder You would think government grants should pay towards this,as its very educational and promoting good industrial standards.

[@SkillBuilder]

@@chelps6411 I am not sure tax payers should be subsidising a bunch of blokes on a jolly. There comes a point where we have to stand on our own two feet or fall flat on our faces.

[@chelps6411]

@@SkillBuilder They subsidise alot worse lol !

[@strummer6642]

Don't forget to visit Crackington Haven, next up from Boscastle, enjoy a pint in the Coombe Barton

[@SkillBuilder]

Now you tell us. We could have been there, we should have been there.....

[@strummer6642]

Been there this week, it was built for the owner of the local slate quarries

[@danielmoore2142]

Proper Cornish boy on the wet cutter 😅

[@warrenbooth2103]

There’s always Westmorland green slate very attractive.

[@140rware]

This is good mate. I wonder how many times these slates will be reused 👍

[@stephenjdixon1]

good roofing and walling slate in Lake district. Also a very hard slate in Dales called Ingleton granite. Not on roofs though ?

[@forenamesurname1183]

Burlington slate, cumbria too

[@Pithead]

I've got some slate coasters. They'll probably last a few million years, maybe even a lifetime.

[@mojoejoejoe6706]

The old boy cutting the slate is straight out of vicar of dibley

[@rjtjtckt3998]

Another great video team Roger! Is there a right/wrong way to put slates on, can the bevelled edge face up or down.

[@thegingebot]

Rodger is really blowing up, getting Alan partridge to voice over the end is impressive!

[@stephen-boddy]

Interesting piece, but it made me think of that scene in Hot Fuzz where there was a chain of 3 people with ever thicker accents translating for the outsider 😆

[@lewischatburn7899]

generally just an enjoyable video that was

[@sharonclaridge]

I pass there regularly on my way to the tip :)

[@PGAYouTube]

Nice Slate. Wonder if you do the North Wales slate Penrhyn and others, sure you would have a great Welsh welcome😅

[@kevinmcg5496]

Each trade to there own❤

[@thefowlyetti2]

The lake district is famous for its Slate mines.

[@SkillBuilder]

I always thought it was famous for its lakes.

[@thefowlyetti2]

@@SkillBuilder Yes, but as far as slate goes, i thought it was the most famous area of the country for it, more than wales.

[@SkillBuilder]

@@thefowlyetti2 I am not sure how we would establish that. I used to think Cumberland's most visited attraction was the pencil museum but maybe not,

[@justinday5961]

Delabole! Best in the world!

[@raducristiandumitrescu1806]

How heavy is 100 square meter of roof compared to commercial red slates, are any better or something ?

[@jonerlandson1956]

i really want to know...

[@timhull8664]

Ha Ha, I see he has his hi viz jacket on, just in case they forget he is there😂

[@alexstephen5695]

Not sure how any builder can believe you can only get slate from North Wales! 😂😂 What have you been building? Lego?

[@SkillBuilder]

Lego comes from Denmark, I have been to the Lego quarry.

[@LupusMechanicus]

Inches!