Results tagged “Welsh miners cottages” from York Town Square

Donald Robinson demonstrates how to split slate near two stone cottages under renovation in Coulsontown. The cottage in the background is one of two private cottages. These four of the Welsh miners cottages stand near Slate Ridge, outside Delta. Background posts: 100 years later, Delta clock keeps on ticking, Wanted: One slate-roofed privy from Delta, Pa. and All posts related to Coulsontown.

Don Robinson eats and sleeps the history of the Welsh, the group of slate miners from the British Isles who settled in the Delta area in the 1850s.

He and his wife Ruth Ann often can be found at the cottages giving tours or looking in on archaeological digs... .

Volunteer Tom Sadler repoints the walls of Welsh quarry worker cottages in Peach Bottom Township. 'It's good for them to be preserving this history for the future generation,' he said. By them, he means two-year owner Old Line Museum in Delta. (See additional photos below.) Background posts: Digging Coulsontown: 'This is not Indiana Jones', Time almost forgotten Coulsontown and Wanted: One slate-roofed privy from Delta.

Those old Welsh miners' cottages in the southeastern tip of York County, in Peach Bottom Township?

It's hard to get too much of their story. And those photos capture the eye.

Spokesmen at the Old Line Museum in Delta, which bought the cottages two years ago, believe the structures serve as the only examples of Welsh construction in the country... .

Marley Boyd helped in a dig area in the of Coulsontown, Peach Bottom Township, Pa. The Coulsontown miners' cottages are in the background. Excavators are looking for answers about how Welsh residents lived in the mid-1800s. (See additional photo and video by Paul Kuehnel below.) Background posts: Wanted: One slate-roofed privy from Delta, Pa., Time almost forgot Welsh miner's hamlet of Coulsontown and 100 years later, Delta clock keeps on ticking.

"Sonic Pixie," a Web commenter on a York Daily Record/Sunday News story on an archaeological dig near the old Welsh miners' cottages in Coulsontown, had it right:

"It is really amazing to see individuals in the community who are passionate about preservation and gaining a greater sense of understanding of who we are and where we came from."

This slate mining village in the southeast tip of York County has to be on a top 10 list of intriguing, obscure sites around here.

The story (4/17/08) titled "Digging local history," follows:

A single, heavy beam supports roof joists inside a Welsh quarrymen's cottage in Coulsontown, near Delta. Welsh immigrants brought this construction technique to the region when they arrived to work in southeastern York County's slate quarries. If anyone is aware of an outhouse in the Delta area with a slate roof, please comment below. Background posts: Time almost forgot Welsh miner's hamlet of Coulsontown, 100 years later, Delta clock keeps on ticking and Gettysburg fighting heard about 60 miles away.

Seattle's David Williams, wingate@seanet.com, is a natural history writer working on a book about building stone.

He's writing a chapter on slate and its many uses - roofing, billiard tables, gravestones and blackboards.

And on outhouses... .

Don Robinson of Delta's Old Line Museum is seen near one of four remaining cottages built by Welsh quarrymen. (For additional photographs, see below.)

The YDR's Melissa Burke and Paul Kuehnel recently wrote about and photographed the rebirth of the nearly dead southeastern York County village of Coulsontown.

Fourteen years ago, the YDR's Marianne Clay painted the town, near Delta, before this "renaissance." So, here goes the story of another of York County's unsung landmarks (search for "unsung" on this blog and you'll discover the others):