Tintagel Slate Quarries fall into two categories: the series of quarries lying between Tintagel Castle and Trebarwith Strand on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England and the open cast quarries further inland. There are around eight cliff-edge quarries as well as two wharfs, all of which are now disused as well as four inland sites, two of which are still in operation. The first quarry to be worked appears to have been Lanterdan at some point in the fifteenth century, [1] while the last of the coastal quarries, Long Grass ceased operations in 1937. The remains of the coastal quarries occupy coastal land owned by the National Trust and most are easily accessible from the South West Coast Path. The Prince of Wales Quarry has been turned into a country park by North Cornwall District Council.
The working faces of the coastal quarries reach to the full height of the cliffs- 60 metres (200 ft) in the north and 100 metres (330 ft) in the south. The cliff top is relatively flat with no naturally occurring coves, bays or river valleys. The stone itself is Upper Devonian slate and Lower Carboniferous slate of a greyish green colour and was used predominantly for roofing while the rubble was useful for building. The slate closer to sea level is generally of better quality than that higher up. [2]
The southernmost cliff quarries (the southern end of Caroline as well as Lanterdan and West quarries) as well as the inland sites used conventional open cast stone extraction methods. However, clifftop quarrying provided unique challenges. Gillow, Long Grass, Lambshouse, Gull Point, Dria, Bagalow and the northern part of Caroline are sea cliffs where the slate workfaces were already exposed and which have simply been cut into.
Working the cliff face quarries will have involved clearing away any surface material such as soil, grass and loose stones and dumping them in the sea. A strong point will have been established on bedrock a short way back from the cliff edge. On the rock immediately above the cliff edge, a whim is built. This is a wooden frame with a pulley that is anchored at the strong point and operated by a donkey or horse walking in circles, often while blindfolded to avoid distractions.
Quarrying on the cliffs will have been a hazardous occupation with men suspended by ropes as they worked the vertical rock face. The whims were used to winch workers down and buckets of slate back up. The stone was extracted by hand using drills but also with explosives, and the value of the slate extracted clearly made this kind of hazardous and labour-intensive quarrying cost-effective.
The slate from the coastal quarries was dressed or split into thin, usable tiles in sheds at the top of the cliffs.
A good workman could split 100 dozen roofing slates in a day. Splitters worked 7.30am to 5.30pm with a half hour break. Some rag slates measured 6 ft by 2 ft, some were 18 inches square and sold at 2s.6d a dozen in 1888.
The slates were known by names relating to their size, which were (in inches): Queens 36x7, Duchess 24x14, Countesses 20x10, Ladies 16x9 and Doubles 12x7. Small roofing slates known as scantles measuring 9x5, 8x6,7x7 and 6x3 were cut by boys.
Slate from North Cornwall's quarries was used to make cisterns up to 2,000 gallons as well as corn chests, pig troughs, mangers, pump troughs, baths, salting troughs, milk coolers, larders, chimney tops, mantle pieces, window sills, garden edging and hedging, room skirting, lintels, quoins, rolling pins, candle sticks and ashtrays. Every Cornish churchyard has examples of slate headstones. [3]
The finished stone was taken by tramways to be shipped from nearby wharves or transported by rail from Camelford Station. Any waste product was heaped up in spoil tips or if the quarry was by the coast, simply dumped in the sea.
The remains of whims, dressing sheds and food and powder stores litter the cliffs above the quarries. Most are in a ruinous state but the offices, powerhouse and smithy belonging to Long Grass quarry now serve as Tintagel's youth hostel. Well-preserved whims can be seen at Lambshouse and Caroline quarries and the remains of a toolshed perches on the clifftop above Caroline quarry. Caroline quarry also has a large cave hacked into the cliff face by quarrymen - the cave gives its name to Hole Beach, a surfing beach below the quarry workings. In between Gull Point and Dria quarries is Penhallick Wharf, an abandoned loading dock cut into the side of the cliff, and another disused wharf can be found at Port William to the north of Trebarwith Strand.[ citation needed ]
The most visible quarry building in Tintagel is the engine house at the Prince of Wales quarry. Built in 1870, this once housed a Woolf compound beam engine that both pumped water out of the pit and hauled trucks of slate from the workings at nearby Bowithick quarry. The building was restored in 1976.[ citation needed ]
Despite Tintagel having a centuries-old slate quarrying history, ever since the publication of Tennyson's Idylls of the King in 1859, the focus of tourism in the village has been on King Arthur. However these quarries are testament to an actual rather than a fictitious history. Despite many of them occupying a spectacular coastal location, there is currently no visitor centre, no tourists are directed here and the only informational signage in place is at the Prince of Wales site.[ citation needed ]
This article needs additional or more specific categories .(April 2022) |
Tintagel or Trevena is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur and in recent times have become a tourist attraction. It was claimed by Geoffrey of Monmouth that the castle was an ancient residence of King Arthur.
North Cornwall is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is also the name of a former local government district, which was administered from Bodmin and Wadebridge 50.516°N 4.835°W. Other towns in the area are Launceston, Bude, Padstow, and Camelford.
Crackington Haven is a coastal village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in the civil parish of St Gennys at grid reference SX140972 at the head of a cove on the Atlantic coast. The village is seven miles (11 km) south-southwest of Bude and four miles (7 km) north-northeast of Boscastle.
Killas is a Cornish mining term for metamorphic rock strata of sedimentary origin which was altered regionally by the Variscan orogeny and then locally by heat from the intruded granites in the English counties of Devon and Cornwall. The term is used in both counties.
Trebarwith Strand is a section of coastline located near the coastal settlement of Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, England, UK, 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 km) south of Tintagel. It has 800m of sandy beach contained by cliffs in which natural caves are found. The beach can only be accessed at low tide. The strand was once used to land ships to export slate from the nearby quarries while sand from the beach was used for agricultural purposes. The view from the beach is dominated by rocks 300m offshore known as Gull Rock or Otterham Rocks.
Trewarmett is a small hamlet in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies within the civil parish of Tintagel, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Camelford. To the west of Trewarmett is Trebarwith Nature Reserve.
Nansledan is a major new suburb of Newquay in Cornwall, England. Nansledan has been developed by the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall since 2013, with residents first occupying their homes in 2015. The development, officially described as 'an extension of Newquay', had the endorsement of King Charles III during his time as Duke of Cornwall.
Gillow State Quarry is a small, disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The quarry was abandoned by the turn of the 20th century.
Long Grass Quarry is a small, disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England, which was worked up until 1937. It was the last of the slate quarries on this stretch of coast to be abandoned.
Lambshouse and Gull Point Quarries are two disused slate quarries between Tintagel and Trebarwith at Lambshouse Cove on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The quarries were latterly worked jointly as one site and were abandoned by the turn of the 20th century. It is likely that Lambshouse Quarry originated at the cliffs at the north of the cove while Gull Point was to the south.
Bagalow Quarry is a disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith at Bagalow Cove on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The quarry was worked from the 1830s into the early part of the twentieth century.
Hole Beach is a bathing and surf beach just north of Trebarwith Strand on the North Coast of Cornwall, South West England. The beach can be accessed from Trebarwith at low tide or by a zigzagging quarryman's track from the village of Treknow. The beach is sandy and the water is good for surfing. The sheer cliffs to the north of the beach form part of the now disused Caroline Slate Quarry and were created by quarrymen suspended by ropes attached to strongpoints some 75m on the clifftop above. A cave 15m above sea level is artificial and is also the result of quarrying- this is the "hole" that gives the beach its name. There is also a natural sea cave at the rear of the beach. One of the stone strong points still perches on top of the near vertical cliffs 75m above the beach, as does a second building which was possibly used as a toolshed.
The Prince of Wales Quarry is a disused open cast slate quarry in Trebarwith Valley on the outskirts of Tintagel in Cornwall, South West England. The quarry is known for its engine house, the only one of its kind in North Cornwall.
Bowithick Quarry is a disused nineteenth century open cast slate quarry situated in Trebarwith Valley on the outskirts of Tintagel in Cornwall, South West England. The quarry ceased operations in 1913.
Lanterdan Quarry is a disused open cast slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The quarry is the oldest, largest and most spectacular of Tintagel’s coastal quarries and was worked from the fifteenth until the early twentieth century. A distinguishing feature of the quarry is a 25m high pinnacle of inferior slate.
Tintagel Haven also known as Castle Cove is a small beach on the north side of Tintagel Island on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England.
Penhallick Wharf is a disused coastal loading dock between Tintagel Castle and Trebarwith Strand on the north coast of Cornwall in South West England. The wharf served the Tintagel Slate Quarries, particularly those without easy access to the loading beach at Tintagel Haven. These include Caroline, Dria, Bagalow and possibly Lambshouse and Gull Point quarries.
West Quarry is a disused open cast slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The quarry ceased operations towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Lye Cove is a small coastal inlet near Tintagel on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England. The cove lies immediately below the Iron Age hill fort known as Willapark and nearby Lye Rock was the site of the wreck of the Italian cargo ship Iota in 1893. Above the cove is the remains of a nineteenth century lime kiln.
Boscastle Slate Quarries are a series of disused coastal quarries between Willapark and Trevalga on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England.