Monument record MWX4024 - Coastal limestone quarry, Langton Matravers

A post-medieval coastal limestone quarry at Langton Matravers is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map and is visible as earthworks on lidar.

A quarry marked on the first edition OS map (1) Also marked on the second edition (2)
Post medieval coastal limestone quarry, Corfe Castle Estate, Langton Matravers. The quarry is marked on the OS 1st edition map and is visible as earthworks on lidar (3-4). The features were digitally plotted during the South West Coastal Zone Survey (Dorset).

<1> Channel Coastal Observatory, 23-MAR-2008, Lidar (Photograph). SDO12878.

<2> Channel Coastal Observatory, 25-FEB-2009, Lidar (Aerial Photograph). SDO12879.

<3> Papworth, M, 1994, Eastington, Acton, Westwood, Wilkswood, New Barn, Corfe Castle Estate, Wessex Region, 59 (Unpublished document). SWX1388.

Headbury was one of the two principle quarries of Langton (the other Dancing Ledge) and is said to be named after its mid 18th-century founder Thomas Eidbury (Savile 1992, 4). By 1771 it was worked by the Chinchin family. On April 14th that year “Received of Titus Chinchin for the ground of Idbury Quarry £10-7s-0d.. 349 tuns of ashlar at 6d per tun and 130 tuns of backing at 3d per tun”. As with Seacombe the stone quarried was Portland Purbeck. The stone was lowered by whim (as derricks or cranes were called) to a platform cut into the rock at sea level and then loaded with another crane onto barges which took the stone to a waiting ship. This hazardous transport could take place only when the sea was calm, usually in the summer months. An early 19th century indenture in the Bankes archive dated 49th year of George III lists the payments which the quarrier Joseph Chinchin owed Henry Bankes for each type of stone taken from West Edbury quarry. The types of stone included ashlar, step, rough, backing, paving, channel stone, grave stone, sinks (a speciality of Headbury), rollers and sets of caps and legs. One shilling was owed Mr Bankes for each set of staddle stones taken from the quarry, a set consisting of nine caps and nine legs. In the later 19th century Headbury Quarry was worked by the Landers family known as the ‘Chinchin Landers’. A copy of an oil painting of the family and their employees at work in the quarry in 1865 is held in the Coach House Museum, Langton Matravers. The quarry closed in the early 20th century. Headbury Quarry quarry is divided into two sections, the largest of these is that to the east and it is possible to walk through the quarry caves/galleries to reach the west section. The east quarry has an upper and lower level. On the upper ledge was placed a cannon facing towards France at the time of Napoleonic invasion scare of 1801.

Record last edited

Sep 6 2024 4:38PM