Ertach Kernow - Delabole where slate created a new village in Cornwall

Delabole Church - Credit Philip Halling - Geograph.co.uk

Cornish slate came to mind whilst attending a talk on Cornish Stone Hedges presented by Ann Reynolds. It was fascinating to see how the various types of stone around Cornwall is used in different design of stonework based on the same methods of construction. This all depends on where you are in Cornwall and the type of stone available. When one thinks of Cornish slate more often than not it is Delabole slate that comes to mind. However, other slate types are used in the construction of Cornish hedges, whereas Delabole slate is for top-notch roofing especially on historic buildings. Author of the ‘The Survey of Cornwall’ Richard Carew wrote in 1602 of Cornish slate ‘For covering of houses there are three sorts of slate, which from that use take the name of healing-stones the first and best blue, the second sage-leaf coloured, the third and meanest, grey. The blue, and so the rest, are commonly found under the walling slate, when the depth hath brought the workmen to the water. This slate is in substance thin, in colour fair, in weight light, in lasting strong, and generally carrieth so good regard, as (besides the supply for home provision) great store is yearly conveyed by shipping both to other parts of the realm, and also beyond the seas, into Brittany and the Netherlands.’

I remember my first visit to the village of Delabole some 45 years ago, I was in my early 20’s working at Midland Bank in Wadebridge. It was a sad occasion as I had to visit the house of a customer who had died, strangely I still remember Mr Hutornoi quite well. It was a wet day and perhaps the occasion and the weather did not endear me to the village. Now with a historians mind I far better understand the important place Delabole holds throughout not just Cornwall but England as well, all down to that special commodity Delabole slate. 

Looking on an Ordnance Survey map in the late 19th century if it wasn’t for the Old Delabole Quarry and mention of the site of Delabole Barton it may have been difficult to identify the location. This was a time when what would become the village of Delabole consisted of four smaller villages and hamlets Pengelly, Meadrose, Rockhead, and Delabole Barton. The amalgamation of these would form the larger village of Delabole named after the slate quarry. Still very much spread out along the B3314. known as High Street within the village, each of its original settlements remain clearly identifiable.

OS Map Delabole 1884
Delabole - Domesday Book

As always click the images for larger view

Castle Goff, a small single walled and ditch hillfort or settlement
Late 19th century view of Delabole Slate Quarry

The weather for this area is described on a climate charting site thus; ‘Delabole has a notably wet climate with abundant precipitation, recording 1117 mm of rainfall per year. Despite minor fluctuations, Delabole enjoys fairly consistent precipitation throughout the year.’  No wonder perhaps with Delabole located a short way from the coast, the land rising to 222 metres above sea level and mounting still further towards Bodmin Moor and Bronn Wenelli at 420 metres to the east. Onshore winds bringing rain filled clouds would begin dropping precipitation as the land begins to rise steeply. This would have been quite a harsh environment to early people although there is plenty of evidence of prehistoric settlement in the area with barrows towards the coast and Iron Age rounds and field enclosures identified. Nearby Castle Goff is a small hillfort, or perhaps considered a round, with an original diameter of eighty metres and an earth rampart some three and a half metres high surrounded by what is now a shallow ditch.  It is during the medieval period where more evidence of the areas settlement can be found with the manor of Deliou being recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. Historically the settlements now comprising Delabole were located in the ecclesiastical and administrative parish of St Teath. Since 2021 Delabole is now within its own civil parish, which stretches out towards the coast taking in the hamlets of Treligga and Westdowns.

We must return to the real reason that Delabole grew into a larger village rather than remaining pre-medieval farming settlements. The early excavation of slate took place throughout the whole area including quarries out towards the cliffs and further inland. The number of times Delabole slate is mentioned in the stories of churches, paving slabs, monuments and historic buildings generally is enormous. The large quarry that dominates the area began as a number of smaller quarries that merged to form one of the largest in the United Kingdom. Measuring one and a half miles in circumference and 425 feet deep quarrying on this site has been carried out since the mid-thirteenth century. In 1893 Delabole was joined to Camelford by the railway line operated by the North Cornwall Railway Company and the railway benefiting from output from the slate quarry.

Delabole Slate Quarry
Thomas Rowlandson - Delabole Slate Quarry drawn in 1817

Cornwall’s famed antiquarian Dr William Borlase had something to say about Delabole slate in his works of the mid-18th century. ‘That the grey-blue slate of Delabole, in Cornwall, weighs only 2,512 ozs. to the 100 ft., which is greatly less than the lightest Westmoreland slate that I have met with. This Cornish slate, from its lightness and endurance of weather, although I have no reason to think that in the least particular it excels the Westmoreland slate, is generally preferred to any in Great Britain, and is, perhaps, the finest in the world.’ The satirist and artist Thomas Rowlandson on a visit to Cornwall drew Delabole Slate Quarry in 1817. That this was of interest to his customers illustrates the continuing curiosity and importance of Delabole slate in the early 19th century.

The prestige of connections to the quarry were shown in a memorial at St Teath church. ‘In memory of Robert Bake, gent, of Delabole Quarry in the parish of Saint Teath, who died the 10th day of October, 1810 ; aged 84 years. As principal proprietor of the said quarry for upwards of sixty years he justly bore the character of an honest man.

Like many larger villages and towns which have grown from their original roots as smaller hamlets Delabole did not have a church having to use the parish church at St Teath located over two miles away. This would have been used for virtually the whole populations religious needs including baptisms, marriages and burial services. There was evidently a need for a church within the growing settlement based around the Delabole slate quarry. The foundation stone was laid 24th August 1878 to a design by architect James Hine of the Plymouth firm Hine & Odgers. They were to become known for a number of new buildings and restorations in east and north Cornwall. On dedication in 1881 St John the Evangelist Church at Delabole became the sister church to the parish church of St Teath but was not included in many of the church guides written around that time. Although not historic like many of Cornwall’s medieval churches it has value and is a Grade II listed building. Non-Conformist groups were on the rise and a number of chapels were built by each of the denominations. At Medrose a Bible Christian Chapel, Pengelly boasted two the Wesleyan Methodists and the Wesleyan Methodist Free Church. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in the small hamlet of Treligga in 1829, now a rebuilt holiday home.

St John the Evangelist Church at Delabole
Old Treligga (Chapel on left)
Delabole School designed by Silvanus Trevail

The contribution to Delabole from Silvanus Trevail one of Cornwall’s best known 19th century architects must be noted. The school was one of thirty-five he designed in Cornwall with the Delabole School being built in 1878, a similar design to that in St Teath. Today the school building is Grade II listed and still retaining the original iron railings to the front of the building. The slate quarry was a major employer in the area and the Education Act of 1870 saw the beginning the ‘school board’ system of national education. In 1864 the Old Delabole Slate Quarries as they were referred to then employed 450 men and 130 boys. This gives an indication of how many children there were in the area requiring education.

Delabole has another claim to fame besides its renowned slate quarry. The height and position of land around Delabole and its closeness to the coast made it an ideal spot as the United Kingdom’s first windfarm. Opened in 1991 wind turbines were at that time a novelty and the site was soon visited by over 100,000 people which encouraged the opening of an energy education centre. Sadly, the Gaia Energy Centre failed to attract the numbers needed to make it viable and closed after three years. It seems that visitors to Cornwall were not interested in visiting the centre. However, the site today is headquarters of Balaena Ltd a leading renewable energy developer. The original ten wind turbines were replaced in 2011 with four far larger and powerful turbines more than tripling the output, sufficient to provide energy to 7,200 homes.

Former Gaia Energy Centre now home to Balaena Energy

Delabole and its famous slate quarry have provided generations of Cornish folk with work supplying roofing and flooring for some of Britain’s most prestigious buildings. Perhaps one of the latest and most interesting goes beyond the norm with the construction of the Tintagel Castle bridge. Here some 40,000 slates make up a pattern using the different shades of the slate slices. Not just an interesting design utilising cantilevers but incorporating produce from one of Cornwall’s most iconic historic industrial sites. Now once again owned as a family business and using modern methods of extraction let’s hope it continues working for many more generations.

Delabole, where slate created a new village in Cornwall
Delabole, where slate created a new village in Cornwall

Heritage Column

Ertach Kernow Heritage Column - 5th February 2025 – Cornish Language REVIVE project

Heritage in the News online links:

New project aims to REVIVE the Cornish language - ARU

Ertach Kernow shared in VOICE, Cornish Times, Cornish & Devon Post newspapers
Ertach Kernow shared in VOICE, Cornish Times, Cornish & Devon Post newspapers