Qualla: Honister Slate Mine

Honister Slate Mine: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0. The slate at Honister is green, not the more familiar Welsh grey. It is called Westmorland green slate, and it has been cut from these crags above the head of Honister Pass since the late 17th century. Today it is the last working slate mine in England - one mine, one vein of stone, three and a half centuries of continuous production interrupted only by two world wars and a brief shutdown in the early 1990s. Honister has outlasted every other English slate operation, which is a quiet kind of survival. It has also outlasted a man who decided, against considerable odds, to reopen it.

Read more: Honister Slate Mine on Qualla

Image: Victuallers | CC BY-SA 3.0

Honister Slate Mine: Packhorse Trains and Self-Acting Inclines

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 1870, Honister's underground workings ran beneath Honister Crag, with intermediate operations across the valley at Yew Crags and smaller workings on Dubbs Moor. Packhorse teams pulled finished slate on sleds down steep paths to the top of Honister Pass - 'The Hause' - and from...

Read more: Honister Slate Mine on Qualla

Image: Victuallers | CC BY-SA 3.0

Honister Slate Mine: Two Wars and a Resurrection

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0. Both world wars hit Honister hard. During the First, labour shortages forced the workings into care and maintenance. After 1918, production resumed, and by 1926 the mine had a new Resident Director, Robin Hoare, who electrified the works at the Hause with two Ruston four-cylinder...

Read more: Honister Slate Mine on Qualla

Image: Victuallers | CC BY-SA 3.0

Honister Slate Mine: Closure and a Man Who Would Not Accept It

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jack86mkII, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1981 the Moore family bought the operation and invested heavily - rail-borne Rockershovels, battery locomotives, improved rolling stock. They sold to Alfred McAlpine in 1985. McAlpine ran the mine for four more years and then, in 1989, shut everything down. Care and maintenanc...

Read more: Honister Slate Mine on Qualla

Image: Jack86mkII | CC BY-SA 4.0

Honister Slate Mine: The Pilot Who Loved a Cliff

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Graham, CC BY-SA 2.0. In March 2011, while filming a BBC documentary called Tales from the National Park, Mark Weir was killed in a helicopter crash. He had been trying to obtain planning permission for a proposed zip wire from the top of Fleetwith Pike down to the mine below - a project that had capt...

Read more: Honister Slate Mine on Qualla

Image: Michael Graham | CC BY-SA 2.0