Bradford Quarries
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Stone quarries can be found all round Bradford town, including extensive underground workings.
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Bridge Street Quarry had an area of open working, with an adit that went into the hillside under St Margaret’s Hill. These workings must have been cut through by the railway tunnel when it was dug in the 1840s. The group of modern houses called Taylors Row was built in the open quarry in the late 1990s, obscuring the face, although a small section was left as a Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS).
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A slope shaft led into the same complex of underground stone workings, allowing blocks to be hauled to the surface. The photograph shows the shaft when it was uncovered when Long’s Yard, Trowbridge Road was redeveloped for housing.
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At the far end of Bridge Street at Greenland is a high quarry face that exposes most of the limestone beds. It has been obscured by chains to prevent rocks falling on the modern housing of the Greenland Mills development.
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Above the canal and off the lane to Upper Westwood is a large open quarry called Grip Wood Quarry, or Jones’ Quarry after the firm of quarriers and builders who worked there. It has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Importance because of the sequence of rocks that is exposed there. Daniel and Isaac Jones built many buildings in Bradford and beyond.
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Opening from one side of Grip Wood Quarry is an adit that gave access to several acres of underground workings that were used for growing mushrooms after the stone had been removed.
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Along Frome Road, beyond the Barge Inn, is the opening into the underground workings of Bethell Quarry, another entrance into the area that was used until recently as a mushroom farm. It was named after George Bethell, who owned it and built Abbey House, Church Street from the stone in about 1775.
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Next to the Frome Road entrance to Fitzmaurice Junior School is the entrance to the Poulton Quarry. The school used the quarry as a bomb shelter dur World War 2. The low hill of Poulton Field remains unbuilt because the quarry tunnels are shallow and liable to collapse.
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Ventilation fans for Poulton Quarry are still in place near the school. They were probably installed when the quarry was used during the war.
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On the northern side of Bradford there was a large quarry in Newtown, underneath St Mary Tory Church. It must have provided stone for many Bradford buildings, but was out of use by the middle of the 19th century, when Wilkins Brothers built their brewery there. The long range of malthouse was built right up against the quarry face. Part of the face can be seen up Well Path, with window-like openings of underground working into the hill.
A large shallow quarry was opened up at Clay Farm, Frome Road in the 1790s to exploit the Bradford Clay as puddling clay for waterproofing the bed of the Kennet & Avon Canal. Canal Quarry lasted for 200 years, but was eventually closed, filled and has now been built over. In the early 19th century it was famous internationally for its fossils and an interpretation board has been placed on the site by the Wiltshire Geology Group.
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