Winsley Quarries
Winsley, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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Murhill Quarries lie to the west of the village of Winsley, on the edge of the plateau level. A larger upper quarry was in 1905 the site for the Winsley Sanatorium, now Avon Park retirement village.
Stone from Murhill was used for the façade of Bristol Temple Meads Station.
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The lower quarry was known as Engine Quarry because there was a steam-powered stone-cutting saw installed there. From there, blocks of stone were lowered by a steeply-inclined tramway to a wharf on the bank of the Kennet & Avon Canal. The adits at the base of the quarry face were drains that took water from underground workings.
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Another inclined tramway seems to have run down the hill from Winsley to the Kennet & Avon Canal. The embankment of the route is clearly seen in the field called Gold Hill, leading from an old quarry in what is now the garden of the house called The Chase. It would have reached the canal near Elbow Bridge.
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On the border with Bathford, Somerset, Conkwell Quarry is in a similar situation, on the edge of the highland above the valley. The faces are very overgrown, but large areas of rock can still be seen. James Byfield, Bath stone merchant, took stone from Conkwell for 7 years at £20 a year from 1830.
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Like Murhill, stone was taken down to the canal, to a wharf at Dundas Aqueduct, by an inclined tramway. It is now a steep gully, but erosion has not yet removed a couple of stone sleepers that held the track.
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