William Roberts who lived in Hawthornes just north of Drybrook was a lime burner. In his will he bequeathed a quarry and his kiln to one of his sons. I have recently been examining two old photographs of the Hawthornes, one lodged by Slowhands on this web site and another a few years later on from the web. Both photographs show a quarry site although significant development is obvious only on the later photograph. The quarry seems to be located in about the same location as the very large Hanson Aggregates quarry curently in operation. It seems possible that the site of this modern day quarry might have been where William Roberts had his quarry 170 years ago. Can anyone tell me if there would have been a lot of small quarries in operation in the 1840s or is there a good chance that the quarry in the photograph would have been William's? Does anyone know the history of Hanson Aggregates and is it a limestone quarry. Any thoughts welcomed.

Peter I