Three Quarries in or near the Parish of Ruardean (General)

by dwdavis , Vancouver, Sunday, January 31, 2016, 06:40 (3220 days ago) @ Jefff

Jeff,
Your prompt, detailed and useful response to my query is very much appreciated. I am working my way through the links and learning from them. I appreciate your sound advice about what can be expected when exploring a landscape more than two hundred years after three small quarries were worked with the relatively simple tools of the later eighteenth century. I enjoyed a visit to the Geomap shortly after it opened and know that the three quarries I am particularly interested in were not among the 49 major quarries portrayed there. That project, though, did whet my appetite to learn more about the geology of the Forest of Dean.

I am currently rereading the 1942 survey which provides some encouragement that those slopes above and below and over the rise from Varnister will reveal some traces of what a Varnister quarryman might be walking to and from in a long day's work. Your point that the terrain may be overgrown or much exploited in later times making it challenging to pinpoint the small operations carried out prior to and presumably after 1793. The late William Dreghorn's Geology Explained in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley with its fine illustrations and cross-sections of the Ruardean area have been helpful in demystifying those strata and suggesting just what the Bradley quarrymen would likely have been cutting, wedging, crowbarring and hauling out of the hillside.

I am sorry not to have met Eric Morris. It would have been fascinating to learn first-hand from him about his experiences in working an Aston Bridge quarry all these years later. Thank you again Jeff for opening doors for us. This is a most helpful start to our preparations for quarry hunting in the Forest later this year.
Donald