20
MODERN QUARRYING
January - February 2014
INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE FOCUS
A
lthough Simon McPherson, general
secretary of the Institute from its
inception until his death in 1957 is
acknowledged as the founder of the
Institute, the original idea was not
his. On 19 October 1917, he met with Owen Wil-
liams, Josh Woodcock, Sam Richards and William
Jenkinson at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Caernar-
von, NorthWales, to discuss the possible formation
of an association for quarry managers.
This timing was somewhat surprising. Britain
was still at war with Germany and the construction
industry was extremely depressed; so what moti-
vated these men to try and start a new association
at this point?
In an article recorded in
The Quarry Managers’
Journal
in 1921 by William Jenkinson, he recalls
how his three colleages had broached the idea
independently to Simon McPherson at more or
less the same time. Most interestingly, Williams,
Richards and Woodcock were all strangers to one
another, and it is a strange coincidence that three
quarrymen working in North Wales during
the First World War, all came up with this
same idea at basically the same time.
In 1917, the war effort was a
heavy drain on the British econ-
omy and in an attept to encour-
age industry to pull together
during this extremely difficult
period, the Ministry of Labour
appealed to major industry to
establish national councils to
promote a common approach to
some of their problems, such as
negotiating with labour organisations
about wages and conditions.
In response to this, the North Wales
Slate Quarries Association was formed,
as the slate producers were the biggest
employers in the area. The establishment
of the Association represented a major change of
attitude within the industry. Now, for the first time
in 500 years – the big landowners such as Lord
Penrhyn, who owned a 72 000‑acre estate and
Penrhyn Quarry employing over 2 000 men, and
the Assheton-Smith family whose Dinorwic Quarry
was the second-largest operation – joined with the
smaller operators to discuss and share problems.
Interestingly, the earliest record of commercial
quarrying at Penrhyn goes back to 1413.
It follows that as the slate quarry owners recog-
nised the value of forming an association to discuss
matters of common interest, that the managers of
other quarries in the area were prompted to think
about starting an association of their own to do the
same. Thus it seems likely that the formation of the
NorthWales Slate Quarries Association was the cat-
alyst that led to the establishment of the Institute.
At the first meeting on 19 October 1917,
McPherson, an energetic Scot from Aberdeen who
seemed to know everyone in the area connected
with the industry, was elected Honorary Secretary.
His first duty was to send out invitations to all the
quarry managers in North Wales to a meeting at
the Sportsmans Club in Portmadoc on 3 November.
Institute of Quarrying
– an association like no other
As we lead up to the 45
th
anniversary of the Institute of Quarry-
ing Southern Africa, which takes place on 11-12 April at the Lord
Charles Hotel in Somerset West, this time hosting the prestigious
international Presidents Council,
Modern Quarrying
looks back at
the establishment of the Institute in the UK in 1917, and its growth
over some 97 years.
The construction industry was extremely depressed in 1917.
Picture shows a female labourer during that period.
