Boots & Bread

Penrhyn Castle is an enormous 19th-century neo-Norman building in spectacular surroundings. The estate’s wealth derived from sugar plantation slavery in the Caribbean, and later the exploited labour of slate miners in Gwynedd. Bitter disputes between Lord Penrhyn (1836-1907) and the quarry workers over issues such as pay and workers’ rights culminated in the Great Strike of 1900-1903. These events inspired many works, including the novel Chwalfa (‘Upheaval’) by T. Rowland Hughes (1903-1949), which was made into an award-winning production by Theatr Genedlaethol. Many local people still refuse to visit the castle, now managed by the National Trust - who are working on a major new interpretation project to explore the castle's complex and difficult history. The accumulation of wealth in Wales through exploited labour and slavery has inspired countless works of literature, including the ghostly Sugar Hall by Tiffany Murray (b. 1971) and also Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams, which explores these themes and more recent conflicts of identity in an autobiographical journey from Africa to Guyana and North Wales.