Westwood Quarries
Westwood, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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The steep hillside above Avoncliff has been extensively quarried for Bath Stone. Underground workings that cover large areas open from adits near the top.
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Avoncliff Quarry, despite not being worked for a long time, retains several clear faces, showing the sequence of beds. It has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
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An adit to the west of Avoncliff Quarry. It was kept open for ventilation and as an emergency exit, but a locked gate now prevents entry into the tunnels.
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The entrance to Westwood Quarry below the houses, quarrymen’s homes, of Upper Westwood. Its stone, which is flecked with rusty patches, is still occasionally extracted when a match is needed. The old tunnels were put to use for mushroom culture and later, during World War 2, as a factory for making gun sights by the Royal Enfield company and for storing the treasures of the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
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An old photograph shows the track of an inclined tramway that brought blocks of stone down the hillside from Westwood Quarry to a wharf on the Kennet & Avon Canal by gravity and, continuing by horse-drawn trucks, across the aqueduct to a mason’s yard and siding next to the railway. The entrance to the quarry can be seen at the top.
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At the western end of the escarpment, just before the road plunges down to the confluence of the Avon and Frome valleys at Freshford, is the small open Staples Hill Quarry.
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