 OS Map 1848-1857; Aislaby is lower middle left | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
  Aislaby Quarry | |
| Location | Aislaby |
| County | North Yorkshire |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 54°28′01″N0°41′20″W / 54.467°N 0.689°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Sandstone |
Aislaby Quarry is a sandstone quarry in the village of Aislaby, near to Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. The quarry produces sandstone which has been exported through Whitby to London and South East England.
The quarry workings at Aislaby are 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Whitby, [1] and were known to have been in existence by the 11th century, as the majority of Whitby Abbey was constructed of stone quarried from the area. [2] The West and East Piers at Whitby were faced with 6 tonnes (6.6 tons) blocks of Aislaby stone. [3]
Besides being used for building purposes, some of the stone from Aislaby was used in decorative work such as crosses used in churches. [4] Examples of this stone worked decoratively have been found in churches the area including Whitby Abbey, Lythe, Church of St Mary, Lastingham, and Hovingham. [5] [6] [7] The Easby Cross, which dates to the early 9th century, has been matched to the same "medium-grained deltaic sandstone traditionally produced in the Aislaby quarries of Eskdale, near Whitby". [8] It is theorised that pack horses took sections of the stone west from Aislaby to the valley of the River Swale, but it is unknown who paid for the cross. [9]
In May 2002, the quarry was re-opened to allow new stone to be quarried to provide repairs for structures which used Aislaby Stone in the first place, such as the east pier at Scarborough. [10] It was again reopened in the 2010s, specifically to supply stone for a renovation programme on the East and West Piers at Whitby. [11] The quarry was registered in 2020 as Eskdale stone, working sandstone from the Saltwick and Cloughton formations of Jurassic sandstone. [12]
The structures listed below were built with stone quarried at Aislaby (not all structures are entirely of Aislaby stone);
The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a National Park in 1952, through the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Covering an area of 554 sq mi (1,430 km2), the National Park has a population of 23,380. It is administered by the North York Moors National Park Authority, whose head office is based in Helmsley.
Fylingdales is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England situated south of Whitby, within the North York Moors National Park. It contains the villages of Robin Hood's Bay and Fylingthorpe and Fyling Hall School.
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk. It has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. The fishing port emerged during the Middle Ages, supporting important herring and whaling fleets, and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship and, coincidentally, where his first vessel to explore the southern ocean, HMS Endeavour, was built. Jet and alum were mined locally, and Whitby jet, which was mined by the Romans and Victorians, became fashionable during the 19th century.
Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery that later became a Benedictine abbey. The abbey church was situated overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, a centre of the medieval Northumbrian kingdom. The abbey and its possessions were confiscated by the crown under Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1536 and 1545.
The River Esk is a river in North Yorkshire, England that empties into the North Sea at Whitby after a course of around 28 miles (45 km) through the valley of Eskdale, named after the river itself. The river's name is derived from the Brythonic word "isca" meaning "water". The Esk is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea; all other watercourses defined as being major rivers by the Environment Agency, either flow to the North Sea via the River Tees or the Humber Estuary.
Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe was an English pioneering photographic artist whose work presented an enduring record of life in the seaside town of Whitby, England, and surrounding areas, in the late Victorian era and early 20th century. His documentation of the Victorian and Edwardian periods in Whitby, led him to be labelled as the "pictorial Boswell of Whitby.
Aislaby is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated near the town of Whitby on the northern slopes of Eskdale just off the A171.
Goathland is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is in the North York Moors national park due north of Pickering, off the A169 to Whitby. It has a station on the steam-operated North Yorkshire Moors Railway line.
Ruswarp is a railway station on the Esk Valley Line, which runs between Middlesbrough and Whitby via Nunthorpe. The station, situated 1 mile 30 chains (2.2 km) south-west of Whitby, serves the village of Ruswarp, Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Sleights is a village in North Yorkshire, England. Located in the Esk Valley in the postal region of Whitby, the village is part of the civil parish of Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby and the borough of Scarborough. Sleights lies along the steep main A169 road that runs north to south between Whitby and Malton via Pickering across the North York Moors.
Ruswarp village lies within the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. It is around 1.8 miles (2.9 km) from Whitby, at the junction of the B1410 and B1416 roads, on the River Esk and the Esk Valley Line, with trains stopping at Ruswarp railway station. Originally it was called Risewarp meaning 'silted land overgrown with brushwood'.
Briggswath is a village in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. the settlement is on the north bank of the River Esk, upstream of Ruswarp, and opposite Sleights which is on the south bank.
The Easby Cross is an Anglo-Saxon sandstone standing cross from 800–820, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It originally came from Easby near Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, where a plaster replica is kept in the church. Easby was then in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The width of the long faces at the bottom of the lowest fragment is 31 cm (12 in), with a depth of 18 cm (7.1 in), and the whole cross would originally have been up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) high.
The A169 is an A road in North Yorkshire, England. It runs from the A64 at Malton on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds through the Vale of Pickering and across the North York Moors to join the A171 just west of Whitby. It is a single carriageway for all of its 25-mile (40 km) route. Whilst it is not considered a Primary Route nationally, the Ryedale Local Transport Plan lists it as part of its Major Road Network alongside the A64, A166 and A171.
Kettleness, is a hamlet in the Scarborough District of North Yorkshire, England. The settlement only consists of half-a-dozen houses, but up until the early 19th century, it was a much larger village. However, most of that village, which was on the headland, slipped into the sea as a result of instability caused by quarrying for the alum industry. Kettleness became a smaller settlement, with houses rebuilt slightly further inland.
The piers of Whitby are four structures along the River Esk estuary in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. Whilst all the piers can be accessed by the general public, the piers were not built as seaside attractions - so called pleasure piers like Redcar, Saltburn or Withernsea, moreover serving a civil purpose, such as ship loading and protecting the harbour. The main West and East piers in the town have been built to provide shelter from the currents and storms of the North Sea, and in the 18th and 19th centuries, any ships seeking refuge in the harbour were charged a levy for use of Whitby's safe haven. These levies were used to pay for the maintenance and improvement of the piers.
The Eskdale Anticline is a dip-slip fault at Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. The anticline was thought to have stretched for approximately 20 kilometres (12 mi) in a north–south direction underneath the mouth of the River Esk in Whitby, with a depth of 200 feet (61 m). However, modern geological studies have cast doubt on this, with a suggested displacement of only 12 metres (39 ft).
Whitby Strand was a wapentake and liberty in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was one of thirteen wapentakes across the old North Riding of Yorkshire. The division of the area into the Liberty and Wapentake of Whitby Strand occurred in the 14th century, previous to this, the settlements were in the wapentakes of Langbarugh and Pickering Lythe.
The Port of Whitby is an ancient and historic seaport on the North Yorkshire coast of England. The port lies at the mouth of the River Esk, where it enters into the North Sea. A port has been in existence at Whitby since at least the 7th century, when it was used to bring in supplies for Whitby Abbey. The port is famous for being the port of origin for the sailings of Captain Cook, and some of the ships that he sailed on were also built in the harbour.
Quarries in North Yorkshire | ||
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| Active quarries in North Yorkshire |  | |
| Inactive quarries in North Yorkshire | ||
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