Monument record MWX4393 - Breston Quarries, Portland

Breston Quarries, marked on the second edition OS map. Cliff quarries worked along stretch of coast, include worked faces, a crane base, tipping place and two tramway courses. Bath Stone Firms Ltd had a new opening at Breston with a new steam derrick in 1900. Some of this worked since 1929. The quarries are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs of the 1940s and 1960s.

Breston Quarries, marked on the second edition OS map. (1)
Cliff quarries worked along stretch of coast, floor is backfilled and top of cliff exhibits made-up ground some held back by stone block banks, other places, rubble rough tipped onto the level of base bed or chert. Quarries include worked faces, a crane base, tipping place and two tramway courses. Seen from Cheyne Weares viewpoint, some of this can be seen exposed along the cliff edge - at random points quarrying had been carried right down to the chert. Bath Stone Firms Ltd had a new opening at Breston with a new steam derrick in 1900. Some of this worked since 1929. (2-3) One part of Breston Quarries has a face which zig-zags into the quarry from the main face and has evidence of hand-cut pits (pig places); also, a small length of channelled face at SY 6885 6955. (3)

The coastal quarry, Breston Quarries, described above (in 1-3) is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs of the 1940s and 1960s to the east of Lawnsheds. The quarry is visible over an area measuring approximately 415 m by 80 m. (4-6) The site is still visible on the most recent comprehensive aerial imagery available to the project. (7) This site was digitally plotted during the South West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey (Dorset).

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1901, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, sheet LX.3 (Map). SDO10281.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1929, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, sheet LX.3 (Map). SDO10282.

<3> AC Archaeology, 2002, The Isle of Portland Review of Mineral Planning Permissions Stage 1: archaeological baseline study for Hanson Bath & Portland Stone, document no. 4299/1/4. (Unpublished document). SDO10260.

<4> Royal Air Force, 13-APR-1946, RAF 106G/UK/1411 4050-1 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13027.

<5> Royal Air Force, 13-APR-1946, RAF 106G/UK/1411 4051-2 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13031.

<6> Meridian Air Maps Ltd, 26-JAN-1968, MAL 68002/006-7 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13032.

<7> XX-XXX-2009, Google Earth (Aerial Photograph). SDO12705.

Record last edited

Sep 6 2024 4:38PM