Cerrig canon

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John
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\just around our village are four cerrig canon (rock cannon) that can be easily visited during lockdown (three are within 5 mins of the nearest road, and my house is just visible in the first of these pictures). What, you may ask, is a cerrig canon? Peculiar (I think) to north and mid Wales, it is a naturally occurring rock with a flat(ish) top, into which has been drilled a number of vertical holes, and grooves carved connecting the holes on the surface. Then the quarrymen (it was usually them making a cerrig canon) would fill the vertical holes with gunpowder, tamp it down, spread more powder along the grooves to connect the holes, light one end .... and a series of explosions would follow, visible and audible for miles. Typically they would be set off to celebrate some noteworthy event.

These are not great pictures, but they show two of our rock cannons - and the third shows how successful they could be, as you can see towards the rear a cross-section through a hole, and the major split the explosion caused in the rock.

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