Elm Park Quarry

Location: Gastard, Wiltshire

Size: 29,386 m²

Owned By: Travis Perkins

Current Status: Disused since 2017 (No Access to the Public)

Coordinates:

Slope Shaft & Quarry Yard - 51°24'51.0"N 2°09'57.2"W

Ventilation Shaft 1 (Blocked Off) - 51°24'48.4"N 2°09'57.7"W

Ventilation Shaft 2 (Blocked Off) - 51°24'45.4"N 2°09'57.7"W

Ventilation Shaft With Ladder - 51°24'42.4"N 2°10'01.0"W

Information:

Elm Park Quarry also known as Elm Park Mine is one of the smaller Bath stone quarries in the area, the quarry has one slope shaft which at one time would have had tracks for minecarts, however the tracks have now been removed and the slope shaft has been enlarged to allow modern vehicles to drive down, there are also three ventilation shafts one of which has a ladder fitted which acts as an emergency exit, the other two are blocked off.

In the late 1800s beds of Bath stone had been discovered in the Gastard Estate leading to some trial shafts being dug in the area in the early 1910s three of which became ventilation shafts for Elm Park Quarry, at the time the quarry was owned by the Gastard Estate who leased the quarry to Bath & Dorset Quarries Ltd, the quarry started off as an open pit quarry (above ground) which is the area dug out of the hillside where the quarry yard and Travis Perkins are now, a slope shaft was dug and then underground quarrying started in 1912.

The quarry was unused during World War I, but quarrying continued in 1918 and in April 1921 the lease of the quarry was taken over by Elm Park & Corsham Down Bath Stone Co. Ltd which was later renamed to Elm Park Company. In 1929 The Bath & Portland Stone Firms took over the lease of the quarry, after the outbreak of World War II in 1939 Elm Park Quarry was requisitioned and used first by the RAF and then from 1943 it was used as part of the Royal Navy Armament Depot for storage of munitions, it was also used by the University of Bristol for archival storage during the war.

In the early 1950s The Bath & Portland Stone Firms continued quarrying at Elm Park, the stone from Elm Park Quarry is harder than normal Bath stone and is known as Elm Park Bath Stone, as it was more difficult to work not a huge amount was quarried and it had stopped by the early 1960s, the quarry was dormant for a while, in 1983 the yard and quarry was bought by Kayaness Builders Merchants and later Goodlands Builders Merchants in 1996, both used the yard for storage, the quarry yard was split into two sections, one for use as a builders yard and the other for the quarry.

In 1998 Pictors Bath Stone Ltd and later Elm Park Mine Ltd got a lease to work the quarry and started off by widening the slope shaft to allow for newer machinery to fit, however after this not everything went to plan costs spiralled and there was a breach of planning permission and in 1999 they lost the right to work the quarry, soon after quarrying started again, in 2003 Travis Perkins bought the quarry and opened a store in the builders yard, in 2005 Wessex Dimensional Stone Limited took over the quarry lease until 2013 when Ham & Doulting Stone Co. Ltd took over the lease, in 2017 they were granted planning permission to expand the quarry however the expansion never happened and the quarry has been disused ever since.

References:

David Pollard, Digging Bath Stone, Lightmoor Press, 2021

Eric Bignell, Stone Specialist

Companies House, Company Reports

Wiltshire Council, Planning Permission & Building Control

Surface Structures: (click/tap photo to enlarge)

Map: (click/tap to enlarge)

Photos: (click/tap photo to enlarge)