Quarries in or near Ruardean, Moorwood = Limestone (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Saturday, February 06, 2016, 15:04 (3207 days ago) @ Carole Lewis

Hi Carole, yours or anyone else's input is always very welcome, please, especially if it comes from personal/family experience like yours, whereas in this instance mine is just cribbed from various references.
I suspect Donald will know what the Moorwood/Lydbrook quarries were extracting for sure, I'm afraid I always tend to think red Forest sandstone as per the East Dean quarries we foolishly played in as 70s kids.

This excellent page of notes about the Royal Spring pub at Vention, Moorwood, suggests limestone;
"Lydbrook is made up of a number of settlements of which the Vention area is but one. It is situated in the north east of the present parish. The lane leading down from the Morewood past the inn and down to the River Wye having also served as a tramway in the 1820’s. The area has two marketable assets, limestone and coal, A large quarry and some limekilns lie above the inn, and another limekiln was built about halfway down towards the river. The incline is very steep."
http://www.gloucestershirepubs.co.uk/AllGlosPubsDatabase/RAIGConnection.php?pubid1=1396
The old maps of the area do show several old lime kilns, lime was a very valuable product in past years for many purposes, particularly fertiliser.

The 125 page report "The Forest of Dean Landscape" splits the Forest into different areas from a "landscape" viewpoint, it lists the following under the "Limestone Hills" heading; Bicknor Hills, Highmeadow Woods & Staunton Hills, Coleford & Christchurch Hills, Newland Hills, Ruardean Hills." This section starts with a map clearly showing this part of the Western Dean, see report page 15.
https://www.fdean.gov.uk/media/Assets/ForwardPlan/documents/Sustainability%20Team/Secti...

The following page details the area in pure geology terms, all a bit heavy-going for me I'm afraid !. However the cross-section thro the Forest simplifies it, you can click to enlarge it to show it cuts thro' the Dean from the Western side (Wye) thro Clearwell(Coleford) then Cannop to Soudley(Cinderford) in the East.
To me this suggests the majority of the exposed (so most easily quarried) stone on the far Western forest including Moorwood is indeed Carboniferous Limestone, whereas "my" Drybrook/Soudley side is largely Red Sandstone. This clearly reflects the aforementioned Landscape Report.
http://www.glosgeotrust.org.uk/fod_geology.shtml
That said, the Bixlade Quarries between Coleford and Cannop are red Sandstone, so clearly there are some localised outcrops that differ from the norm shown on the cross-section.

I hope this is correct, hopefully others far more expert than I'll ever be will also contribute, please.