Imagine you are a child living in the late 1800s. You are lucky, because your family have agreed to continue your schooling, even though your compulsory years have finished. You know it was a big sacrifice, as there is one less person to help on the property, but your parents feel schooling is important. You love learning the different things, reading is a particular favourite. You also love writing on the slate, learning to shape your letters better each year.
When I showed this slate to the children, they thought it was cute, 'like a tiny little blackboard'. They thought it would be great fun to use such a tiny blackboard in their schoolwork for practicing drawing letters, but were shocked when they learned that this was the norm in days gone by, for all lessons. They decided that using a slate all the time would be not much fun, saying 'it would leave you really dusty from the chalk'. They were surprised to discover that chalk would not have been often used, and were intrigued by the idea of a slate pencil.
Slate is a type of rock, with a very fine grain and of a dark grey colour. The rock can be easily split into thin sheets which were often used in making roofing tiles. Although we know slates were being used by the 1800s in schools, we do not actually know when or how people discovered slate could be used for writing. Some suggest the earliest references to writing slates come in the 14th century, but others trace their history back further, comparing them with ancient writing tablets. Whatever their early history, we know that by 1778, the industry in making writing slates was huge, with a reference in the journal of Thomas Pennant saying that 136,000 writing slates were made in Penrhyn alone that year! By the early 1900s, writing slates accounted for a huge percentage of the market in slate.
Roofing slates still accounted for a large amount of the slate quarried, but they were comparatively easy to make and were often even made at the quarry itself. Writing slates however had to be made in factories in nearby towns, and to keep up with demand, some towns even had multiple factories! Here the slate was carefully shaped, removing sharp edges. Often there were lines or squares marked in the slate itself, or even maps drawn on them. Many were then mounted in wood, though some were bound as two or even three sheets of slate in a 'slate book'. They were very popular because they were more economical than paper, and mistakes as children were learning could be erased without wasting precious paper. They went out of fashion when paper became more cheaply available, and also because they were thought to be unhygienic, as children often spat on them to clean them.