IT'S strange that studying the grim lives and hardship endured by previous generations be entertaining, but a visit to the Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis proves this to be the case. It makes for a fascinating day out and has to be one of the bargains of the tourist industry, because it's now absolutely free. The former Dinorwig quarry workshops are in many ways unchanged, so this is not a sanitised view of history in a glass case. The machinery's still there in the dusty gloomy grey buildings, most of it works and there are regular demonstrations of the skills that lay behind this key local industry. Engineering junkies will be in seventh heaven with the range of gear on show, but even if cogs and crankshafts usually leave you cold, no-one could fail to be impressed by the sight of the giant waterwheel - over 50 feet in diameter and still supplying power. As well as seeing how the men worked in a range of different trades and how natural resources were harvested to provide roofs for the industrialising world, you also get a picture of social and home life. A fairly recent addition to the museum is a terrace of tiny quarrymen's houses moved stone by stone from Blaenau Ffestiniog and furnished to represent three different periods, 1860, 1901 and 1969, though it can be a little disconcerting when objects you remember from your own childhood - or may still have hanging about the home - turn up in a museum! Also bringing the past to life are the knowledgeable staff, who will give demonstrations and answer your questions, and the video footage of retired quarrymen describing what it was like to work there. Although it's tempting to plunge straight into an exploration of the site, if you take time to see the audio-visual show, To Steal A Mountain, first the whole experience becomes far more rewarding because it makes better sense of what you see afterwards. | 
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