Wittington Stone Mine - April 09

More correctly called Dodwell Hill Quarries and they are situated a couple of miles north of Cheltenham. We went down as part of a trip organised by the Forest of Dean Caving Club and were shown around by Arthur Price who has been working on these quarries for the last 20 years or so. What he doesn't know about the place probably isn't worth knowing.

The quarries were opened around 1800 and carried on working until the late 1850s. The stone is inferior oolitic limestone and is called freestone. The reason it's called freestone is because it can be cut in any direction due to a lack of large fossils and no "grain" in the rock. It is a similar stone to Bath stone and Painswick stone. The quarries eventually closed because it became cheaper to transport the stone from the quarries in Box by rail. The Bath stone is also slightly lighter and softer which obviously makes it easier for masons to work.

The quarries were all manual labour, no cranes were used anywhere. In order to load the stone onto the horse drawn wagons underground it's believed that the wagons were tipped on their side, the stone lashed to them and then the whole thing levered back upright!

A couple of later attempts were made to reopen the quarries but they came to nothing, the last attempt in the 1920s I believe.





Not a brilliant picture but you can see the wheel marks on the wall and get an idea of the size of the wheels








This is upside down. I rotated it to show the graffiti on the ceiling more clearly


A really nice example of a picking bed




Horses hoof prints. I can't remember how big they said the horse was.




Just to prove the no fossils bit wrong, here's the remains of a nautilus.

Excellent report mate, thats a really interesting mine. I have never been in a freestone mine before. What I notice is that it seems faiorly hard rock, self supporting like. No timbers or arched deads in there. And dry too!

BigLoada said:

Excellent report mate, thats a really interesting mine. I have never been in a freestone mine before. What I notice is that it seems faiorly hard rock, self supporting like. No timbers or arched deads in there. And dry too!

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It's dryer now than it would have been when working. People and horses would have been breathing out water vapour all the time and there are some places where the miners have packed mud up the wall. The rock itself can be cut like a cheese when raw, it hardens outdoors. You can see in some places where the remaining rock is cracking under the strain of holding up the ceiling.

crickleymal said:

It's dryer now than it would have been when working. People and horses would have been breathing out water vapour all the time and there are some places where the miners have packed mud up the wall. The rock itself can be cut like a cheese when raw, it hardens outdoors. You can see in some places where the remaining rock is cracking under the strain of holding up the ceiling.

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Thanks for the info! I aint familiar with this stone at all, as up here the strata is mainly limestones, sandstone and shales. I might have to have a trip somewhere like this later in the year

great stuff Mal - love that graffiti - 1864!!!

Ooh, I only just spotted this thread. That's fabulous, Crickleymal.
It's quite similar to the quarry caves at Beer. I can't recall if it's freestone or not, but it did harden in the air. It was still a days work to cut a block, though...and if it turned out to have a crack in it, the quarreyman lost a days wages. It's still very damp in there...love that smell.
Great to see another one like it...albeit drier!

Great pics, looks really interesting down there.