Sculpture to remember strike at slate quarry
A NEW sculpture which commemorates the longest running industrial dispute in British history will be unveiled today. ‘Slate or State’ – a 15ft contemporary work featuring Gwynedd’s Bethesda Quarry – is going on show at Penrhyn Castle’s Grand Hall.
It will be accompanied by a film exploring the Great Strike of Penrhyn 1900-1903 through the voices of people of Bethesda, the making of the great quarry sculpture and its procession from Bethesda to Penrhyn Castle in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd – along the same route the quarrymen marched during strike action.
It is more than a century since 700 men begrudgingly returned to the quarry – while over 2,000 quit for south Wales’ coal mines – after a three-year strike over rights, pay and working conditions and split the community apart for decades to come.
The Great Penrhyn Strike and what the castle still represents – a symbol of power and greed – has kept many in the local community from visiting.
The sculpture of the quarry’s raw slate face, set against the wealth and opulence that it afforded Lord Penrhyn, concludes a three-year artists-in-residence project with Arts Council of Wales, but is part of a longer plan involving the local community.
Nerys Jones, Penrhyn Castle’s general manager, said: “Penrhyn Castle is about more than extravagant architecture and fine art, under the surface lies a dark history of slavery and bitter industrial dispute that changed Penrhyn’s relationship with the local community forever.”
The work, which will be on display until November 5, was created by Glasgow-based artists Walker and Bromwich.