Slate Signs & Slate Memorials Lakeland Green Slate

The Lake District, now a Unesco World Heritage site is renowned globally for it’s majestic landscape, and the hard wearing and uniquely beautiful slate that it is built upon, is also home to the High Tarn Quarry.

The quarry, at Tilberthwiate, not far from Coniston, has been worked by at least one member of the Walker family since 1957. High in the hills, with far-reaching views taking in the Langdale Pikes, The Old Man of Coniston and Helvellyn, it is one of the very last remaining independent slate quarries in the area.

 Access to the quarry is via a rugged hairpinned track, unpassable for normal vehicles or wagons. Only Four wheel drive will successfully get to the workings.  Everything has to come in and go out this way – no exceptions.

Whatever the dramatically changeable weather, Nev and his son, Richard, can be found working in this beautiful but unforgiving landscape. Family continuity sees the intimate knowledge of the quarry and the raw slate which it yields being passed down from father to son. The small scale production guarantees the exceptional quality of this particularly hard, green slate with unique markings, which if you are into your “rock” tell the story of the birth of this slate in volcanic eruptions and pyroclastic flows from the Late Ordovician period, about 450 million years ago.

 Tradition and craftsmanship is vitally important, utilising traditional tools and machinery is part of this. You wont see a computer or a CNC controlled cutter in the workshops. The Primary saw dates back to the 1930’s and the Jenny Lin which is used for polishing the slate to the early 1960’s, both running every single working day.

We are very lucky to have come across this small quarry and are looking forward to using their slate to make beautiful slate signs and memorials which are totally unique. The fact that it is a hard wearing slate is an added bonus.

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Design your Sign & Ask for a Quote

Simple Shaping / 45 degree bevel £7.95, We can drill the holes for you @ £1.10 per standard hole. £1.95 per countersunk hole. 2 holes are ideal on the 100mm high slate and 4 holes on larger slates.
The above prices include 6 letters - extra letters - £1.10 up to 25, thereafter 55p per letter.

NB - Only one side of the slate has been polished but we can still sandlast and paint lettering into the slightly rougher unpolished side if required.

We can add a line border with indented or square corners to your slate sign at a cost of £9.95 for most house signs.

Another interesting technique is the sand blasted border i where the slate around the outside of the sign is blasted away leaving the required shape in the middle.
The cost of a sand blasted border is £11.95    Decorative borders £15.95

When the letters are raised and unpainted there is no extra cost for surrounding or line borders. We can use decorative borders for raised and unpainted. Borders are more expensive for larger slate signs due to the time it takes to sandblast the slate.

Simple Images
We can include simple pictures on any of the slate signs. We have a selection CLICK HERE (£12.50 per image under 100mm) or you can send in your own artwork (£34.50 per image under 100mm)- It should be a silhouette style image without any very fine lines.

Detailed Images

We have developed a new method for using detailed images on slate signs which looks very effective indeed.
We first inlay the colour panel which can be any shape - oval, round, square, rectangular or anything else. We then use one of our lasers to laser-etch in the fine detail. The result looks amazing. The cost is just £10 more than a normal image.

Signs - 01769 561355
Memorials - 01769 618585
Wheel Covers - 01769 561314