Slate boundary wall

1212/0/10019

BISHAM, Temple, Slate boundary wall

II

Boundary wall or fence made of slate uprights, approx. 150m long. Welsh slate, probably from the Penrhyn Quarry, Bethesda, Gwynedd. Probably erected c1790 as part of the Temple House estate. The thin sawn boards of slate have roughly rounded tops, and are linked together with timber rails. Larger square uprights are placed at intervals along the fence to provide support: these show signs of having been machine-cut with a circular saw, and may date from a later mid C19 phase.

HISTORY: Temple House (now demolished) was built in 1790 by Samuel Wyatt for an Anglesey mill owner named Thomas Williams. Wyatt's brother was agent to Lord Penrhyn, owner of the principal slate quarry, and the Wyatt dynasty promoted the use of Welsh slate in many of their architectural commissions. This is a seemingly unique instance of slate being used in an English context for fencing, and shows the spread of this native Welsh technique to England as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution.

SOURCES: unpublished report by Dr Dafydd Roberts of the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis (2003); D. Wilson & B. Boulter, 'Temple Mills, Bisham, Berkshire' (Maidenhead Archaeological and Historical Society, 1974); J.M. Robinson, 'The Wyatts. An Architectural Dynasty' (Oxford 1979).