Slate Mines in the Blaenau Ffestiniog area of north Wales produced the slate which covered the roofs of Victorian houses. Mining tours shows how workers removed the slate, often spending their working life in one cavern! Contrast the bank office, which issued coins for miners use, with the worker housing. Miners worked 12 hour-days (6 AM to 6 PM) with only one half-hour lunch break from Monday to Saturday. Sunday was for church attendance. They only had three holidays a year. Most of them were dead by 30-40 years of age -- from exhaustion, mining accidents, or respiratory diseases. Mines here had 25 miles of underground shafts which were sometimes 10 floors in height. Only 10 percent of the rock was useable slate; today only 5 percent is. Click on a picture to see a larger view.