I know that there were several stone quarries in Mansfield Woodhouse and that many men from the village worked in them.
The ones I know of are Rouse’s Quarry, Sill’s Quarry and Parliament Quarry. Where were these located?
Does anyone know the names of any others and their locations?
Did you or your family work there?
Local Stone
The local stone is magnesian limestone, but what was the stone used for?
The foundation stones for the Houses of Parliament came from Mansfield Woodhouse.
As did the foundations for Southwell Minster. Could that be relevant to the origins of Mansfield Woodhouse. Did quarrymen move to live at the small settlement of Mansfield Woodhouse around the time that the Minster’s building programme started about 1108?
The stone was transported by packhorse. What would have been their route? Would they have used the river system as well?
Comments about this page
Ratcher Hill quarry was on Southwell Road and I believe it was owned and run by the Mansfield Sand Company. I worked from there for a short while in the mid seventies.
Also had a spell in Gregory’s back in ’59.
As mentioned above, (ref the sand quarry in Mansfield). There was another on Southwell Road, Mansfield, named Ratcher Hill Quarry. I believe it could have been owned / run by Mansfield Standard Sand. I am aware of this as I worked from this quarry for a short while, back in the mid ’70’s.
I was born and lived on Laburnum Grove just over the railway lines from Rouses quarry. There was a pump house there as there was a spring constantly filling the quarry with water .We played on rafts with oil drums underneath. But tragically a boy, who I think was a member of the Fells family drowned in there.
I was born in Blake Street, we moved to Elm Tree Ave around 54 years ago, the quarry I can remember there were two, one on Vale Road [I believe there is a drop in centre there now], just at the side was a jitty leading to the top end of Elm Tree Ave, the other Quarry was under the bridge leading to Pleasley Vale, this was filled in many years ago.
Re, the old quarries off Littlewood Lane, the biggest is almost filled in now, but will most likely take a while longer as Messrs Bowring and co are screening and sending out fill as well as taking it in to be deposited.The plan for the one off the lane at one point however, was to turn the grit gantry/conveyor from Shirebrook Pit at one point and fill the void that way. It never happened,and the water situation here would now make that pretty much impossible I think. It was talked about though. I believe the old Debdale Lane Quarry had cottages in there at one point, a joiner friend of mine grew up in one before moving further down into Woodhouse itself.
We played in the water filled quarry just beyond the railway bridge on Common Lane in the 60’s a school boy from my old school (St Edmund’s Junior) was drowned there about that time, he got trapped under a raft. It was a great place to play but after that we were all a bit wary.
Just reading about the quarrys in Mansfield Woodhouse and would like to find out more about the one on Common Lane, I believe it was filled in about 1983 as a landfill after someones death. I Need to try to find the actual diameter as not all of the land was quarry.
To discover more about the quarrey on Common Lane for the information you want, I suggest looking/contacting Mansfield & Mansfield Woodhouse Libraries and the Nottingham Archive Office. Try also the A2A web site
There was a sand quarry in Mansfield. Our family used to live on Windsor Rd and the train line through the quarry used to run behind the back of our garden. The quarry used to run between the back of Windsor Rd all the way up to Berry Hill.
I have just seen this page. My great Grandfather Ashley operated Parliament Quarry on Vale Rd (now the Council depot) around the time of WW1 presumably under lease. Later it was worked by Rouses. I would like to add more but am extremely busy at the moment Ian Thomas, Director, National Stone Centre
Good to read your comment Ian, please add more or even your own page when your time permits.
How big was the pond behind Debdale Cottages and when was the quarry filled in? Also how old were the cottages, as that area has always intrigued me since childhood. Thanks for any information.
Ref. The quarries in the Woodhouse area, on Grant Piercy’s site for Stuffynwood Hall he has info on Parliament Quarry on Vale Rd. with an 1861 Geology report for all the Mansfield area quarries, very interesting. The info on Stuffynwood Hall is very comprehensive and well worth reading. Tom Shead.
Quarry photographs on the picturethepast site are as follows, page 8, Limestone Quarry, NCCW001567. Sills Quarry, NCCW001568. They are dated 1920 and donated by a Mrs Dernley. I believe both are of Sills Quarry between the Railway Line and Stubbins, North Lodge Farm. On the second snap the huge cranes and the line of Lime Kilns I previously mentioned can be seen. This Quarry ceased production late 1950s and was filled in. Tom Shead
More information on Quarries, http://www.picturethepast.org.uk go to search the images, scroll down for Mansfield Woodhouse. page 3, NCCW002144, shows photograph of a person with horse and cart at Clatworthy Quarry. Is this the place where Blythes ran their business from? No date when photograph was taken Before the widening of Priory Square/Priory Road junction there was a General Dealers Shop on the corner of Coke St. and Priory Road owned by Clatworthys, could this be the same family who owned the Quarry? There are a number of quarry photos on picturethe past and I will look through them again for any others of interest. Tom Shead
Re Quarries in Mansfield Woodhouse! Starting behind the site of the Old Debdale Cottages, Black Rocks, there was a pond there and Trot Thompsons brother drowned there in the early 50s. Come back to the Railway Station there was another Quarry next to the Railway Bank. The other side of the Station approach which was owned by Blythes, Farmers and Cattle Transporters, Yeoman Hill Park area is shown as a Quarry on early Maps, check Church Hill and opposite the Butt Lane, Churchhill Avenue junction you can see the Park Wall is built on outcrops of stone in various places. Roy Waggot told me the Priory Road Allotments were to be the New Cemetery but a couple of foot down is solid stone. Opposite Edgehill Motors and Savages corner, New Mill Lane was a Sand Quarry upto the late 40s. Common Lane! on some census returns for Woodhouse is Quarry House, not located it yet. Parliament Quarry, stories of where the output vary, I think it finished operating during WW2, we knew it as Donkey Barnes[Bown] Rouses. On the opposite side of the road where the Focus Point is located they had Lime Kilns and a Crusher, I bumped into Jimmy Andrews coming out of the Quarry, clothes torn and when I asked him what his trouble was, ” I fell in the Crusher”. Rouses again. Jimmy’s dad Snotty Bob was the watchman. After the Railway Bridge the first quarry on the Right was Rouses again where they had Lime kilns, in the entrance Stone Masons chisellel the stone to make kerbs and lintels. Following the Railway Line there was Sills Quarry a great expanse with a line of Kilns. Pop Ainsworth was the Watchman. This I believe was the largest Quarry in Woodhouse. Back to the Station along the Railway Line there was a Quarry on the left hand side of Oxclose Lane after the bridge. Rouses. There are a number of Shallow Quarries, where Portland Court Mews off Albert St, where there was a old house about 50 yards in, Mrs Place [Butchers] Roy Waggott told me there was an outbreak of Cholera because the sewage had been dumped in the Quarry and had leeched into the Shallow wells on Albert St,[Taylors Lane] The other one I know of was behind the Shop where Park Hall Road meets Beech Tree Avenue, a friends father lived in a caravan,[similar to the trailer Fred Dibnah pulled behind his steam traction engine].direction of Sunneydale Farm.
Add a comment about this page