Wales Diary: Totally slated

High on a hill above the Menai Straits, Gwynedd Penrhyn Castle's immense structure, once the home of the Pennant family, is now National Trust-owned and open to view untold treasure in fabulous surroundings.

Once Norman, it was rebulit in 1840 with Welsh stone, comprising vaulted, painted ceilings, stone columns and staircases, rooms featuring vast fireplaces hewn from Moelfre marble of all hues carved by craftsmen into masterpieces of art - and much more.

It's a castle that never saw a battle between soldiers. It's a showpiece built by George Dawkins Pennant between the 1820s and '30s for the pleasures of his families, and a temple of wealth to attract royal guests, which it duly did.

There's even a slate bed made for Queen Victoria there to prove it.

The Pennants' wealth was accumulated from the 16th century when the family owned sugar plantations in Jamaica, from which Richard Pennant bought the estates in north Wales around Bethesda.

Here were some of the finest slate deposits in the world, and so a quarry was opened to suit.

The family grew through marriages, such as that of George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant who, as Lord Penrhyn George Pennant, became infamous in north Wales working-class history.

But the castle tour is devoid of signs of the lives of those whose labour created the wealth. No mention is made of the men, women and children who lived in the shadows of the great slate chambers, the men toiling in the vilest of weather, and families housed badly begetting illness, injury, poverty and death.

The Penrhyn quarrymen were early trade unionists of the North Wales Quarrymen's union, which gave them some control over their working lives - a position hated by Lord Penrhyn.

Penrhyn took over in 1885 and "could not accept trade unionism," which he saw as a device "not to advance the mens' interest but to destroy owners' control."

Fifteen years of conflict led to strikes and struggle as Penrhyn and his managers took on the men and the union.

Weakening both, this led to pitched battles on site against contractors, culminating in a three-year strike in 1900.

It was a no holds barred struggle involving scabs and the army, their swords and muskets drawn.

Near-starving workers were thrown out of their homes and bribes were made to gain a gradual return to work, while in Penrhyn Castle the family enjoyed their untold wealth.

The castle was finally sold off for death duties in 1930.

The industrial owners of Wales were no philanthropists.

The true philanthropists were of Tressel's Ragged Trousers kind. Their labour and great craft skills in nature and art were put to use in guilding the mansions and gardens.

The National Trust should be exhibiting the lives of these men, women and children so that visitors can see the castle in its proper historical context. Instead the truth lies hidden in the mountains.

There's a gleam in the eyes of Welsh tourist chiefs who have struggled to prove that the rain in Wales is a precious thing, rather than the spoiler of holidays.

The gleam is guilded with the malevolence of those who saw villages drowned to provide water to English cities.

The drought in England has seen the Severn and Trent water company pumping water into streams and rivers to supply some of the now proven precious stuff as far afield as Lincolnshire, opening up an oil-like trade in water.

It's the reverse of former Welsh Labour leader Rhodri Morgan's position. He thought global warming would make for a palm tree-laden inducement to tourists.

Demands have been voiced by "senior" figures saying that water movements can be improved, and that it is only right that Wales should profit from it.