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Brett Hendey wrote: Paul

I am very pleased that you were able to identify the material used to make this memorial. I would never have thought of slate, since the only slate I am familiar with is the laminated kind used as roofing and paving material.

Regards
Brett

You are quite correct in thinking of "roofing slates" but "slate" refers to the original material used for that purpose, rather than the specific item.i.e. sort of roof tile. In Westmorland England, whole house are built from slate , " chunks" of which were used I the same way as other natural stone - sort of "bricks" I guess. It is also used for paving, work surfaces, house name and number plaques, gravestones, lamp bases and all kinds of decorative and indeed practical items because it is so hard wearing. I believe it is difficult to carve as it splits. Indeed splitting it is how you create roof tiles.
You might like to look at this site which has a couple of links to historical slate videos. www.honister.com/history_of_honister_continued.asp ( I am NOT associated with the company in any way, thus not promoting their products! - just attaching it out of potential interest for you?
Regards Paul,

Paul

Thank you for another interesting and helpful post. The link was very informative. It seems that this slate can be successfully used for substantial items like memorials and not simply used split down for roof and paving tiles. There is only one commercial producer of slate in South Africa and we have lived in a house with a slate roof, while we have often used slate paving tiles. I doubt that anything as substantial as the Bowness memorial could be made from the local slate, which is all too easily split.

Lakeland slate may be an unusual rock of its type.

Regards
Brett