However, the story is based on the real events in Bethesda, Gwynedd, at the time of the 'Great Strike' at Penrhyn Quarry between 1900 and 1903.
Macdonald contributed a painting of Penrhyn Quarry, entitled The Welsh Singer, whilst Appelbee produced the painting One-man Band.
This book provides an analysis of the economic importance of slate extraction to North Wales and also of the rise of trades unionism in the area (and covers the industrial dispute at Penrhyn Quarry of 1900-03).
The quarry holds a significant place in the history of the British Labour Movement as the site of two prolonged strikes by workers demanding better pay and safer conditions.
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The quarry was first developed in the 1770s by Richard Pennant, later Baron Penrhyn although it is likely that small-scale slate extraction on the site began considerably earlier.
Back home in North Wales, G. G., like his father before him, worked in the Penrhyn Slate Quarry.
In Gwynedd the Penryn, Vaynol, and Tanybwlch quarrying estates had large numbers of cannon.
Penrhyn Quarry | Headington Quarry | Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn | Quarry Bank Mill | Penrhyn Castle | Gurney Slade quarry | Walcott Quarry | ''Untitled'' (1961), sculpture by Auguste Cardenas in the area above the Roman quarry in Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland | Seneca Quarry | Rosemanowes Quarry | Public Quarry at Government Island | Penrhyn Quarry | Nelson's Ledges Quarry Park | Lulsgate Quarry | '''Lithiophilite''', well-defined crystals to 3 cm, stacked en echelon in matrix. Locality: Emmons Quarry, Uncle Tom Mtn. Greenwood, Maine | Jerry Quarry | Dry Mesa Quarry | Cann Quarry Canal | Bobby Quarry | Blumenberg (quarry) | Bellwood Quarry | Baron Penrhyn |