On a free afternoon we went to see the slate mine at Travassac. It's not far from Tulle, and is well worth the trip. It offers sepctacular views of the site and the old rocks, plus interesting information about the slate and how it is mined. The deposit is unusual in that the strata are vertical, due to the pressure from colliding tectonic plates.
The slate deposit was discovered in the 17th century, and the locals were delighted to use the stone to build their houses, and then they discovered that it could be split into wafers and used to cover roofs. The slate it provides is very high quality: it's only 2% porous which means that it will last some 300 years as a roof covering, unlike the inferior spanish product that lasts a mere 100 years.
The arrival of artificial materials for roofing tiles led to a decline in demand for slate, and the mine was shut down in 1962. It was re-opened in 1997 as a tourist attraction, and slate is once again mined there to make replacement tiles for those original ones that have started to fail.
I have always been fascinated by the qualities of slate!
ReplyDeleteGood Welsh slate was a fabulous building material for roofs and damp-proof courses, and I'd have loved to have our roof recovered with the beautiful grey stuff!
I'm always amazed that such sites aren't exploited privately, and that small firms could just get in there and produce enough slates to support a family and more!
Vertical strata ... just to be different.
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