You’ve been getting your Christmas creative side on and designing your own Christmas decoration in our crimbo competition.
The 10 lucky winners have now been chosen and have won their design on a Slate House Christmas Tree Decoration*.
Our incredible elves are now busy in our workshop making the winners Christmas tree decorations. Come back later this week to see the winning designs.
Thank you to Sean Holley for being our guest judge for this wonderful competition.
PLEASE NOTE – THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED.
Click The Image Below To Download Your Entry Form
We are super excited to see your Christmas Tree Decoration designs as we know how incredibly creative you are. Choose any design of your choice, just make sure your design is nice and bold.
You can post your entry to Christmas Competition 2021, Slate House, Unit 4, RVB Park, Camffrwd Way, Swansea Enterprise Park SA5 8QD. Alternatively you can email your entries to sian.martin@slate-house.co.uk or drop your entry in to either of our Swansea stores.
Need Some Inspiration?
Our youngest Slate House family members have been creating their own Christmas tree decorations to give you some inspiration when designing your own.
From This …
To This …
Celebrity Judge TV & Radio Broadcaster
SEAN HOLLEY
We are proud to announce that this years celebrity judge is none other than rugby coach legend & TV & Radio broadcaster Sean Holley.
*T&C’s Apply
Terms And Conditions
No purchase necessary.
This competition runs from Tuesday 9th November 2021 00:01 until Sunday 5th December 2021 23:59.
We will announce our 10 winners on Friday 10th December 2021.
One entry, per person, per day.
There is 1 prize per winner. There will be 10 winners in total. Each winner will receive a personalised ceramic Christmas Tree Decoration.
Winners will be chosen by our celebrity judge from all of the eligible entries.
Please ensure the postal details entered at the time of entry are correct as we will be mailing out winners prizes in time for Christmas.
Images sent to us must be the original design of the entrant.
We will only accept original designs. We cannot accept designs that break copyright laws, so please no drawings of characters or brands that are not your own.
Any information submitted to us will not be distributed to any third parties.
This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions and discounts.
The above terms and conditions may be altered without prior notice.
This competition is only applicable to persons living in the UK.
Choice of designs or colours of products dependent on stock availability.
Winners will not be entitled to an alternative prize.
We are thrilled and proud to announce that Slate House have been awarded the Wales Prestige Award for Welsh Product Retailer of The Year 2021/2022.
Thanks to your incredible support over the years, and especially through the pandemic we have achieved this result.
Owner, Creator and Director of Slate House, Kevin Thomas is proud. “I’m not only proud of my team but also the fantastic products we make and our incredibly loyal customers. Without you, we wouldn’t have achieved this recognition. Thank You!”
Our Vision
For over a decade, Slate House has been built on the vision of manufacturing and supplying 100% Welsh-made products of true quality and authenticity.
Our team of designers and craftsmen make our products from the finest materials and ingredients, so you don’t have to compromise. All of our Welsh slate homeware, home fragrance, natural soap and printed gifts are all designed, printed or handcrafted in our Llansamlet workshop in Swansea.
Having supplied products to some of the most demanding and influential customers in the world, such as Red Bull, NATO, NFU Mutual, Bafta Cymru, RBS, The Welsh FA and even Her Majesty the Queen,Slate House has the confidence and drive to keep putting Wales on the map.
Pictured (left to right) Workshop Manager Kory Clifford, Owner & Director Kevin Thomas and Creative Marketing Manager Siany Martin.
We Believe In A Better Planet
Founded in 2007, Director Kevin Thomas wanted to create a company which not only supported local but also strived to be as environmentally friendly as possible. We use natural raw materials in the majority of our products. Our materials are sourced locally whenever possible which provides a low carbon footprint. From our products to our packaging, we believe we all have a part to play in reducing the impact on our environment.
Slate House’s Welsh Slate Products
All of our Welsh slate only travels 130 miles from Blaenau Ffestiniog. All of the retail packaging for our Welsh slate products are made in the UK and from recyclable cardboard.
Slate House products are hand crafted by our skilled team in our workshop in South Wales. Not only will our Welsh slate products stand the test of time but they are unique pieces of Wales to be treasured forever.
Partner Winner
We are proud to work with Alix Digital who won the Digital Marketing Specialist of The Year award.
Alix Digital is a digital marketing company specialising in PPC, SEO and digital marketing training. Their mission is to make sure all businesses have access to the marketing they deserve.
Alix told us “I am delighted Alix Digital has won the Digital Marketing Specialists of The Year award. Myself and the team are extremely passionate about what we do and winning an award for doing what we love is amazing. We are also really happy that Slate House won Welsh Product Retailer of The Year. We thoroughly enjoy working with Slate House and we know that it’s a very well deserved award.”
(left to right), Digital Marketing Exec Gemma Tooth-Phillips, Digital Marketing Exec Emily Sophia Davies and Managing Director Alix Charles, Owner of Slate House Kevin Thomas, Workshop Manager Kory Clifford and Creative Marketing Manager Siany Martin
About The Prestige Awards
After many years focusing on business achievements at a global level, Corporate LiveWire recognised that the important work of small and independent businesses has long been overlooked by most international award programmes. To rectify this, the Prestige Awards was launched to celebrate the businesses and individuals that consistently offer excellent products and services to local residents, expats and tourist visitors alike.
The Prestige Awards team has conducted extensive research to identify the major cities and regions around the world with a vibrant SME community and independent scene. They believe that SME businesses are the backbone of any economy, whilst also typically reflecting the unique characteristics of its particular city or region. Osmaan Mahmood, Founder & CEO of Prestige Awards, said: “although small businesses may not be able to compete with multinational companies on their size and scale, there is a personalised service-driven focus that is often void from large organisations.”
With each destination having been carefully selected, Prestige readers are invited to nominate businesses that have proven to be the best in their market over the past 12 months. All shortlisted companies put forward in the Prestige Awards are asked to support their nomination with evidence of their work, positive feedback from their clients, information on previous accreditation and recognition as well as highlighting the most outstanding parts of their businesses.
The judging panel base their decisions upon areas such as service excellence, quality of the product/service provided, innovative practices, value, ethical or sustainable methods of working, as well as consistency in performance. The winners selected are those who can best demonstrate their strengths in these areas. All winners are featured in a celebratory awards magazine, published both digitally and in print, which is circulated to Prestige subscribers.
Slate House, Union Street, Swansea store opened in 2016
The Slate House workshop and headquarters are based in Llansamlet. We also have a retail outlet in this location too with free parking.
Inside our Llansamlet Retail Outlet
Our Amazing Customers
You may think that we are biased when it comes to our products (we TOTALLY are). However, the quality of our products are just one of the reasons we won Welsh Product Retailer of The Year 2021/2022. In fact, don’t just take it from us.
You’ve been sharing with us your spooktacular pumpkins. From carved, decorated & painted, you guys have been really creative this Halloween.
5 lucky entries have won themselves a Slate House Welsh slate ‘Eat, Drink & Be Scary’ grazing platter AND a ceramic ‘Witches Brew’ mug.
WINNERS
Congratulations Clare from Swansea
Congratulations Kirby from Port Talbot
Congratulations Sarah from Blaenavon
Congratulations Louisa from Enfield
Congratulations Laura from Swansea
PRIZE
Each of our winners have won an ‘Eat, Drink & Be Scary’ grazing platter and a ceramic ‘Witches Brew’ mug.
Terms & Conditions
No purchase necessary.
This competition runs from Tuesday 19th October 2021 00:01 until Tuesday 26th October 2021 23:59.
We will announce our 5 winners on Wednesday 27th October 2021.
One entry, per person, per day.
There is 1 prize pack per winner. There will be 5 winners in total.
Winners will be chosen at random from all of the eligible entries.
Please ensure the postal details entered at the time of entry are correct as we will be mailing out winners prizes on Wednesday 27th October 2021. This is to ensure you have your Halloween prize in time for the Halloween weekend.
Images sent to us must be the property of the entrant.
We will only accept original photographic images. Please note that any entries found where the image is not the property of owner will be disqualified.
Any information submitted to us will not be distributed to any third parties.
This offer is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions and discounts.
The above terms and conditions may be altered without prior notice.
This competition is only applicable to persons living in the UK.
Choice of designs or colours of products dependent on stock availability.
Winners will not be entitled to an alternative prize.
There is no cash alternative to this prize.
Slate House’s Halloween Collection
Check out our Halloween homeware collection. From Trick or Treat signs, to creepy grazing platters and ghoulishly fun mugs. Go on; Trick or Treat Yourself!
Here at Slate House we’ve been going behind the scenes of the Welsh slate business. One of the biggest questions we get asked is, is Welsh slate the best? Let’s find out!
It’s actually a well known fact within the business that Welsh slate is one of the finest quality slate in the world. Did you know that Welsh slate was quarried from North Wales from as early as the 12th century? It’s actually the toughest slate known to man. It has very few impurities and a beautiful colour and grain structure. Wesh slate doesn’t fade in the sun.
The slate itself is approximately 500 million years old and is made by the compression of clay over time. This is thanks to the movement of the tectonic plates – which helped form the Welsh Mountains.
The high quality of the slate is the result of a combination of apsect. From the quality of the clay and the precise amount of pressure & heat.
Related Products: Welsh Slate House Signs – Bespoke Door Signs Made From Authentic Thick Welsh Slate
Meet A Welsh Quarryman
We met with Andrew Jonjo who has been a quarryman for 37 years. Not only is he a quarryman, but he is actually the sixth generation in the Welsh slate business.
Slate has been his, and his families life for 6 generations. ‘Jonjo’ who now works at the Welsh National Slate Museum shows us real slate cutting techniques. He also talks about why he believes Welsh slate is the best.
Slate House’s Welsh Slate
At Slate House, we only use Welsh Blue Grey Slate, although it is in fact a dark grey in appearance. The slate that we use here in our workshop in South Wales is mined at Blaenau Ffestiniog.
It is then whisked over to our Llansamlet workshop where it is hand cut, engraved and oiled.
It is then ready to be sent to directly to your home, our Slate House stores & to one of over 100 stores that we supply around the UK.
Pictured below is our slate cutter Josh who shows us one of the traditional ways to cut slate.
Pictured here is Mike, who is one of our slate cutters here at Slate House. This image shows Mike oiling and finishing our slate heart coasters.
World Heritage Status
In July 2021 UNESCO announced that the slate landscape of North Wales had won World Heritage Status. This now puts us alongside places such as the Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and the Pyramids.
This image shows why our beautiful landscape now has World Heritage Status. Isn’t it just stunning?
The Dinorwig Quarry Copyright: RCAHMW
The landscape has become the UK’s 32nd UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the 4th in Wales,. This follows the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Blaenavon Industrial Landscape and the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales became the world leader for the production and export of slate in the 1800’s.
Slate quarried in the area has been used to build parts of the Roman fort in Segontium in Caernarfon and Edward I’s castle in Conwy. However it wasn’t until the industrial revolution that demand surged as cities across the world expanded with slate from the mines at Gwynedd being widely used to roof workers’ homes, public buildings, places of worship and factories.
Welsh Slate Industry
By the 1890s the Welsh slate industry employed approximately 17,000 workers. It produced almost 500,000 tonnes of slate a year, around a third of all roofing slate used in the world in the late 19th century.
The industry had a huge impact on global architecture. Welsh slate has been used on a number of buildings, terraces and palaces across the globe. This includes Westminster Hall in London’s Houses of Parliament, the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia and Copenhagen City Hall, Denmark.
In 1830, half the buildings in New York had roofs made of Welsh slate. Centuries of mining in the area transformed the landscape on a monumental scale. This reflects the important role this region played in ‘roofing the 19th century world’.
National Slate Museum
If your idea of a museum is based on glass cases and dusty exhibits, then you’re in for a pleasant surprise when you visit the National Slate Museum Llanberis.
This museum-with-a-difference is based in the original Victorian Engineering Workshops at Dinorwig Slate Quarry. The quarry was in its heyday in the 1870’s and closed in 1969. The site was opened as a Museum in 1972 – and was the world’s only national slate museum. The National Museum Wales – attracts over 140,000 visitors a year!
We met with Lowri Ifor who told us more about the museum and the amazing World Heritage Status.
All the staff at the museum are Welsh speaking so, it’s a great place to practice your Welsh.
What Is Slate?
Slate is essentially mud that has first been compressed and compacted, and then squeezed and heated by the Earth’s forces.
The main components of slate are the minerals sericite mica, quartz, chlorite, haematite and rutile. Tiny variations in the proportion of some of these minerals can lead to a rainbow of variations in the colours of the slates themselves. From different shades of green through grey and blue to a deep, rich red.
Slate Names
Nine layers of slate run through Elidir mountain and the different slates bear such lovely names.
Green & wrinkled
Redwood
Red
Old quarry blue
New quarry blue grey
New quarry blue grey mottled
Sage green
Willow green
Bronze
Purple red
Pictured below is our blue grey Welsh slate wine rack. As you can see the appearance is more dark grey in appearance.
How Is Slate Formed?
Dinorwig Quarry slates originated as mud deposited in the sea during the Cambrian era of the Lower Paleozoic Era. This was about 500 million years ago!
At this time much of Wales was the floor of a very large sea or lake, covered by layers thousands of feet thick made up of mud and silt deposited by rivers.
Slowly this mud was turned to clay and was squeezed and compacted until they all faced the same direction. This is what has caused the rock to become splittable slate.
Spectacular changes in the geological history of Wales followed: land movements brought the sea bed upwards to become dry land, which was then squeezed and shaped by lateral forces as a result of volcanic activity.
Did You Know?
Welsh slate slab switchboards were used in the Engine rooms of Cunard Ships Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
Welsh Slate Quarries inspired the construction of some of the earliest railways in Wales e.g Penrhyn Tramway (1801)
Narrow gauge Steam locomotives were first used on a line built specifically to carry Welsh Slate. E.g the Ffestiniog Railway from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog.
Slate Quarrying resulted in immense wealth – evidence can still be seen at Penrhyn Castle or at Y Faenol estate, Gwynedd.
Prince Charles investiture at Caernarfon took place on a ‘dais’ made of Welsh Slate.
The world’s best snooker tables are made from Welsh Slate.
Llechwedd Slate Quarry saw the first commercial generation of electricity in north Wales at the beginning of the century.
The North Wales Quarrymen’s Union, established in 1874, was one of the earliest working class unions in the United Kingdom.
The Penrhyn Strike, from November 1900 to November 1903 is one of the longest ever United Kingdom Industrial Disputes.
King Edward 1st’s architects used Welsh Slate as part of the construction of his chain of castles around Gwynedd.
What Is Welsh SlateUsed For?
Due to the unique qualities of Welsh slate, it has become the best and only choice for many homeware products. This include placemats, coasters, cheese boards, wine racks, clocks, house signs and many others. Indeed, slate home and tableware has become increasingly popular over the last decade.
Interior designers, hotels & restaurants and of course, the everyday consumer want something a little bit more stylish and eco-friendly.
Is Welsh Slate The Best?
Let’s take another quick look at the reasons why WE believe Welsh slate really is the best.
Why Choose Welsh Slate?
There are so many benefits of buying products made from locally mined Welsh slate. We take a look at why.
Why Is Welsh Slate Better?
Roofing companies all over the world recommend genuine Welsh slate as the best slate. The strength and lasting quality of Welsh slate make it one of (if not the best) slate in the world.
Is Welsh Slate More Expensive?
The answer is yes it is, but there are many reasons for this. The benefits of Welsh slate really surpass its cousins. There are not only fewer impurities in 100% Welsh slate but, it also needs less maintenance.
Welsh slate has less fade and is stronger than other slates.
This means that it lasts so much longer and there’s no need to continually repair and replace like many other products. So our natural slate products should cost you less in the long run.
Is Slate Environmentally Friendly?
Slate has a low carbon footprint due to the manufacturing and working processes. It’s a ‘green’ material due to its endurance so will last for longer than many other materials.
We source our slate from Blanenau Ffestiniog which means delivery is much more eco-friendly than slates that have been imported from outside the UK. E.G. China and Spain. Supporting us also means you are supporting the local economy.
Imported Slate
As with any product, there are alternatives to Welsh Slate when it comes to homeware products.
At the lower end of the quality spectrum, Chinese slate is very hard and brittle. Even worse, it is full of unsightly impurities. This means any products made from Chinese slate will be sold pretty cheaply because of the low quality. It will be pretty obvious what you are going to get for your money. It’s not a bad option however, if quality is no real concern and you have a tight budget.
Spanish Slate Vs Welsh Slate
The other most widespread slate currently being used for homeware products is Spanish Slate. Indeed, it is very nice to look at in comparison to the Chinese Slate as it has very few impurities. It is also very flat and you can easily cut quite complex shapes from it.
It’s important to remember the reason Spanish slate cuts so well is that it is a very soft slate. This means Spanish slate is not as hardwearing as Welsh slate.
When cut, Spanish Slate leaves you with a very evenly dressed edge, which looks almost machine-cut in quality. It is also cheaper than Welsh slate and much more readily available.
Remember Welsh slate lasts longer and there’s no need to continually repair and replace like many other products. So our natural slate products should cost you less in the long run.
The Truth About Scottish Slate
Did you know that Spanish Slate is very often being passed off and sold as Scottish slate?
There are several Scottish companies that use Spanish slate to manufacture their homeware products. Their homeware products will say ‘Made in Scotland’, so we all assume that it is actually Scottish slate.
However, the last Scottish slate quarry closed in the 1950s!
The only Scottish slate still available is reclaimed slate from the old mines and quarries.
With this in mind, if you see the phrase ‘Made in Scotland’ attached to slate homeware, it is highly unlikely that it is actually Scottish slate – that is unless it has come from someone’s old roof!!
Don’t Just Take It From Us
You may think that we are biased when it comes to our slate (we TOTALLY are). However, this is the reason why we visited the experts so you could hear it from them. In fact, you are always leaving us lovely reviews when it comes to our slate. Take a look at just a few mentions.
Our Slate Products
So, now we’ve whet your appetite for a Welsh slate item for your home. Let’s take a look at some of our best selling products.
Mood Maker
Set the mood for the evening for a catch up with friends and family with Slate House’s ranges of candles and candle holders. Not only do they look fantastic but our huge variety of scents will really set the mood too.
Daily Reminders
Do you have a busy life? Our Welsh slate chalkboard family planner is perfect for busy homes and workplaces.
Whether it’s meal planning, tasks, a weekly planner for all of the children’s activities, a family planner or just a list of all the fun stuff you’ve got coming up. We handcraft each board from the highest quality Welsh slate.
A Gift For Your Garden
Welcome your guests with a Slate House Welsh slate hanging sign. We have ready made designs or you can personalise them with your very own design.
Make It Personal
If it’s a personal touch you’re looking for then look no further than our amazing personalised Welsh slate serving trays.
Why not serve up some treats on our Welsh slate trays ? These can be personalised to your design right here in our workshop.
Pictured below is Mike one of our slate cutters showing one of the many ways we cut and prep our slate.
