Chepstow Quarries · AditNow Community

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squirrel
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

8 years ago

Can anyone please help me find information about the quarries beside the River Wye above Chepstow in the 1880s through to the 19010s. I am researching James Smart of Chalford (near Stroud, Gloucestershire) whose barges collected stone from quarries worked by William Jones, William Davis and John Richardson, who were supplying rough stone, lifts and broken stone.

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aliibert
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

hi there,there were many stone quarries in the forest of dean and some stone mines too.

Graigfawr
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

From 1897 there was published a governmental "List of Quarries"; it became biennial around in the mid 1900s, and triennial from around 1915. It lists all quarries more than 20ft deep, whether worked continuously or occasionally, and lists, owner's name, type of rock worked, number of men employed, and some other basic details. It does not however state tonnage output.

If the partnerships that worked the quarries changed, then checking the London Gazette (free online access) would be worthwhile as it listed notices of changes to partnerships.

Local trade directories can also be useful but quarries are not consistently included, especially smaller rural ones.

The Annual Reports of H.M.Inspectors of Mines and Quarries will list any fatal accidents but otherwise quarries will rarely be mentioned.

Good luck with your research!

Aztelquian
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

I have found it possible to obtain the government's list of mines & quarries for 1896, 1908, 1918, 1923, 1938 and apart for 1896 that was with a great deal of searching.

Never managed to locate a resource online for the whole lot. I did read that the lists were started in 1850-something but were initially just broad statistics without references to specific sites but that sometime between then & from the later 1800s onwards, specific sites, their locations, owners, what was extracted etc. were / are listed.

Wormster
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

Slightly :offtopic:, but:

After my P&M retired and sold their business, they bought a little cottage in the Angithy Valley (Tintern, up past the Cherry Tree pub) to "do up" as a bit of a project,

T'owd boy is a bit of an amateur archeologist, whist digging over the back yard he(we) excavated an 18th century water powered wireworks, we found the lot: lete, wheelpit, draw plate and many other fascinating artifacts, including some unknown (even by the British Museum in London) they were pottery cones about 2-3inches in diameter and about the same height, next time I'm at "Wormster Towers" I'll grab a photo and stick it up on here for y'all to see!!!

the Wye Valley certainly has a very interesting industrial history!

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"Wormster" wrote:
they were pottery cones about 2-3inches in diameter and about the same height, next time

Anything like this, may have been for galvanizing furnace for wire works?

http://ragaengineers.com/tap-out-cones/

Wormster
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"Morlock" wrote:
Anything like this, may have been for galvanizing furnace for wire works?

http://ragaengineers.com/tap-out-cones/

Hmm.......................... close to what we found, but, ours are made from red clay not white ceramic, and, I doubt that in the 1700's galvanizing was even heard of (but I could be proved wrong though!!)

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

It's been around a while. Just guessing really.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanization

Jim MacPherson
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

"Wormster" wrote:
....unknown (even by the British Museum in London) they were pottery cones about 2-3inches in diameter and about the same height, next time I'm at "Wormster Towers" I'll grab a photo and stick it up on here for y'all to see!!!

the Wye Valley certainly has a very interesting industrial history!

Pottery cones could well be for pottery supports (keeping the base off the floor in the kiln during firing, I have one that sounds similar from my parents-in-law's house in Prescott that had been a site of a kiln in the 18C. I'll get a photo of it later today and upload it to the thread.

Jim

Anything like this?
🔗108849[linkphoto]108849[/linkphoto][/link]

Morlock
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#10

Think you've hit the nail on the head there.

http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/account/3384/object/490567

Roger the Cat
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#11

https://greatwarchalford.wordpress.com but you may know this already. He is described a 'Coal Merchant' in the local literature I have seen, and like many barge and trow owners he was probably engaged in transporting coal from the Forest of Dean via places like Bullo Pill across the Severn to Framilode or Sharpness, so I suppose stone from Chepstow would be would be another cargo. I would be interested if he traded locally or sent his coal down the Thames & Severn to destinations East. I would be interested in the results of your research.

Wormster
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#12

"Jim MacPherson" wrote:

Anything like this?
🔗108849[linkphoto]108849[/linkphoto][/link]

Almost exactly like that! many thanks!

Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.

Jim MacPherson
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

8 years ago

#13

It's interesting that the technique seems quite wide spread, even if the British Museum weren't sure what it was:)

Galvani did his work on twitching frog's legs in the late 18thC but, like you, I'm less sure galvanising, as an anti-oxidizing coating, was developed so soon after.

Jim