# Oxted Quarry, Surrey. 2015



## Scramble Bramble (Apr 14, 2015)

Oxted Quarry was shut in 2012. It has been used since 2006 by Southern Gravel Limited as a dumping ground for inert building waste I.E rubble. 

Before that its history is a bit of a mystery to me. It was chalk quarry, it is located on the North Downs in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, It had been operational as far back as the 1960's (yet to determine exact date)

Around 2014 Southern Gravel Limited, who still owned the site whilst not in operation there, submitted plans to develop the site into 27 residential homes on the basis that revenue was needed in order to reclaim the land. Permission has yet to, and is unlikely to ever be, granted.

I am an artist with an unhealthy interest in quarries and sandpits. A big influence of mine is American land-artist Robert Smithson. Smithson wrote an article in 1967 about revisiting his hometown, whereby he detailed certain new-monuments such as bits of leftover industrial equipment and incomplete sections of Interstate highway being the relics/ruins of a post-industrial generation.

I re-visited my hometown of Oxted in order to find my 'monuments'. I later discovered, after visiting and documenting Oxted Quarry, that Robert Smithson had in fact visited the Surrey site in 1969 to produce a piece of Land-Art within the grounds! (see last picture)

Below details my findings of a place trapped in limbo and with two distinct timelines: One of a chalk quarry slowly transforming into an idyllic & enclosed garden of Eden; another a mistreated and forgotten industrial site awaiting salvation. 




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"many machines were not working, and this caused them to resemble prehistoric creatures trapped in the mud, or, better, extinct machines-mechanical dinosaurs stripped of their skin" Smithson, Robert: A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic,New Jersey 1967.




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MOD helicopter rotor blades in their original packaging. Odd find for a quarry. 




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Chalk-Mirror-Displacement. 1969. Robert Smithson

Enjoy


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## Chopper (Apr 14, 2015)

Ahh no way! I drive by this site everyday but because of the vehicles moving from time to time, I assumed it was still in use. Defo on my list now!!! Cheers


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## brickworx (Apr 14, 2015)

Yeah, cheers for posting...v near to me so worth a look for sure. Nice one.


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## King Al (Apr 16, 2015)

Great work SB, nice find for a sunny day!


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## UrbanX (Apr 17, 2015)

Welcome to the forum! Lovely clean photos, thanks for sharing


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## ajl338 (May 3, 2015)

looks amazing, love the rusting machienery


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## smiler (May 3, 2015)

I'm a bit of a Philistine where art is concerned but I approve of your love of quarries, lovely report and pics, Thanks


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## Dirus_Strictus (May 4, 2015)

Never mind the all too common rusting machinery, those old kilns are the real find here!

As an aid to the poster's research - a search into the producers of 'Agricultural Lime' in the area of the quarry might be of use. Helped me find the owners/operators of a set of local kilns when the search term 'lime kilns' failed.

Very nice record of the site - it was pleasing to see the 'back to nature' part of the site recorded and thus give the complete present day story.


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