See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

The Lundy Granite Company was registered in 1863 and wound up in 1868. The quarry remains comprise 5 cliffside workings together with associated spoilheaps, a dressing floor, inclined planes and buildings for storage, stabling and a timekeepers hut. There are also the remains of workers cottages and an infirmary

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1016041: Granite quarry on East Sidelands, Lundy

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS14NW/77
• Old SAM Ref: 30352

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• QUARRY (XIX - 1801 AD to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

1863, Untitled Source, 778 (Unknown). SDV342269.

Bouquet, M., 1962, Queries, 144 (Article in Serial). SDV342264.

The Lundy Granite Company was registered in 1863. Exported granite from 1865-6. Wound up in 1868. The company owned a small iron steamer, 'Vanderbyl' (built 1864, 56 tons) and a chartered steamer, 'Ogmore'. It is uncertain whether these were used as cargo vessels or as tugs to tow sailships to shore.

Langham, A. F., 1963 - 1964, Lundy Quarry Railways, 26-28 (Article in Serial). SDV342265.

The quarry company papers were destroyed in 1868. There were five workings in all.

Gardner, K. S., 1965 - 1966, Untitled Source, 32 (Article in Serial). SDV342267.

Gardner, K. S., 1972, Untitled Source, 21, fig. 3 (Monograph). SDV5837.

Stanier, P., 1985, Granite Quarrying in Devon and Cornwall, 184 (Article in Serial). SDV342268.

Langham, M., 1986, The Heaven Family of Lundy, 97 (Article in Serial). SDV730.

The Lundy Granite Company obtained a lease to quarry in 1863. Three quarries resulted from 8 trial cuttings. 200 workers were originally housed in wooden building near the farm, later replaced by three rows of cottages on site. A jetty was constructed and a horse-drawn tramway. The company wound up in 1868.

Griffith, F. M., 1987, DAP/IT, 5 (Aerial Photograph). SDV7186.

National Trust, 1989, Lundy, Devon. Vol. One, 59-61,101,083 (Report - Survey). SDV1275.

Disused quarry workings just north of Quarter Wall. Quarry faces west of old quarry railway track, now a path. Some building still remain. Granite lowered by incline to landing beach. Large heaps of spoil can still be seen where discarded chippings have beenunloaded over the cliff. Extensive complex of workings, spoilheaps, tramway and quarry buildings.

English Heritage, 1996, MPP Stone Quarrying - Step 2 Shortlist (Un-published). SDV351124.

Granite quarry identified as being worthy of preservation by Stanier in 1986. Small quarries with tramway and incline. National Trust owned.

Bowman, A. C., 1998, British Quarrying History (Monograph). SDV71598.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 1998, Granite Quarry on East Sidelands, Lundy (Schedule Document). SDV342266.

The monument, which falls into 2 areas, includes a granite quarry on the cliffs called the East Sidelands on Lundy. The quarry was initiated by the Lundy Granite Company in 1863 and ceased trading in 1868. The quarry consists of 5 cliffside workings with their spoilheaps, a terrace revetted by massive stone walls serving as access to the workings, a floor for a light railway to each of the workings, a dressing floor, 2 inclines to carry the machinery to lift and lower the stone from the workings to a landing beach, 2 buildings for stabling and storage and a time hut for the staff to supervise the operation.
The terrace, which forms the greater part of the quarry, runs for 800 metres from a small gully in the side of the cliffs, 200 metres south of the Halfway Wall, to the north side of the valley below the Quarterwall. At the north end there are 2 workings cut into the cliff, the north working suns back for 30 metres and is 15 metres wide; the south is 60 metres deep and 30 metres wide. Both were served by a narrow-guage horse-drawn railway [see HER Monument No. 45955]; the second had 2 rail branches from the main line. Spoil heaps spill over the edge of the terraced and run as far as 80 metres down the cliff towards the sea. The V. C. Quarry [see HER Monument No. 45952] so called because a plaque has been erected in the quarry to commemorate John Pennington Harman V. C., is 200 metres south of these workings. This quarry runs 60 metres into the cliff and is 40 metres wide. This was served by a single rail branch. Immediately to the south is another opening in the cliff which was cut back only 20 metres and is 60 metres wide. This also had a small rail branch. Spoilheaps run out over the edge of the terraced from both of these workings. There is a small ruined building tucked under the cliff on the teraced between these 2 quarries. Beyond these quarries, the railway runs for a further 180 metres along the terrace to the south, past another ruined building, and meets the 2 inclines [see HER Monument No.45956] with the loading platform and the machiery for driving the bucket trains. The main incline runs from the beach to the top of the cliff and is 200 metres ong. A second incline comes down from the dressing floor and meets it at the loading platforms where it was linked to the main driving machinery. At the head of the second incline is the time hut [see HER Monument No. 45958] and a dressing floor on a revetted platform 40 metres long and 10 metres wide. At the south end of this platform are the remains of a building which is associated with a second rail line linking an older quarry, now the quarry pond [see HER Monument No.45916], with the second incline, the dressing floor and the spoil dump immediately below the Quarterwall Cottages. At the junction of the track which runs down to the main terrace from the time hut, a point 135 metres north of the main incline, another parth runs down below the spoil tips to the quarry beach where there was once a crane at the foot of the incline and a landing stage built of timber to take the stone away on boats. The base for the crane survives but the landing stage is no longer present. At the southern end of the complex, 90 metres to the west of the southernmost spoil dump, are the 3 cottages in a terrace on the top of the cliff, known as Quarterwall Cottages [see HER Monument No. 45960]. These are ruinous but the walls survive up to gable height. A well 30 metres to the west of these cottages and associated with them is in a separate area of protection.
Associated with the quarry workins is the infirmary building, 200 metres to the west of the loading platforms and on the top of the cliff [see HER Monument No. 20638]. This is the subject of a separate scheduling. Also associated are the foundations of a row of cottages for the workers 100 metres west of Quarry Pond and the foundations of another row of worker's cottages which were never completed. Both these tows of foundations are the subject of separate scheduling. The Hligoland trap which has been erected on the terrace 30 metres to the north of the winding machine platform is not included in the scheduling but the ground beneath it is included.
The quarry on the East Sidelands survives well as an outstanding example of its class. With the exception of the machinery and stone robbed from buildings for other constructions on the island, little has changed since abandonment in 1868. The quarries are much visited and provide sufficient visible detail to reconstruct precisely the workings of a stone quarrying operation during the late 19th century. Other details: Monument No. 30352.

Hedley, I., 1999, Quarrying Industry (Report - non-specific). SDV338675.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2001, Scheduled Monument Consent Letter (Correspondence). SDV342270.

Scheduled monument consent granted, subject to conditions, for works concerning reparation and drainage works to the footpath. Other details: Monument No. 30352.

National Trust, 2002, The Archaeology and Landscape of Lundy: A Field Guide (Monograph). SDV7235.

English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009: South West, 117 (Report - non-specific). SDV342694.

Generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems. Principal vulnerability collapse.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2009, Scheduled Monument Consent Letter (Correspondence). SDV342271.

Scheduled monument consent granted, subject to conditions, in respect of proposed works concerning the continuation of works at Lundy Quarry Hospital and Cottages. Other details: Monument No. 30352.

English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010: South West, 110 (Report - non-specific). SDV344777.

Ordnance Survey, 2010, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV344030.

English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011: South West, 111 (Report - non-specific). SDV355280.

Generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems. Declining. Principal vulnerability collapse.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.