Cocking Lime Works and Quarry, Cocking, West Sussex - June 2022
Nice and easy explore this one (assuming you take a look at a map rather than brazenly striding away from the path as we did), with a pleasant selection of cable elevators in the chalk and the main crusher/kilns also relatively well preserved. Visited with @YaHBo!Moh and a few others, but unfortunately didn't capture very many pictures of the main workings. Images are a bit of a mixed bag of my phone camera and some decent quality shots from others in the party.
Some History
Lime production on the estate surrounding Cocking parish can be traced back to around 1715, with map records of the chalk pit on Cocking Hill beginning to appear around the late 1760s. The true modernisation of work the works commenced around the early 1920s, under the ownership of the Midhurst Brick and Lime Company, during which time it was used to product the lime required for the manufacture of "Midhurst White" bricks. Following a request from the Ministry of Agriculture to expand into the production of lime for agricultural purposes, the intermediate chalk crushing plant was installed. Expansion and modification of the kiln batteries continued across the 20th century, with the final addendum to the works being the chalk crusher, erected in 1985.
Midhurst Brick and Lime Company ceased trading in 1985, and the production of lime for brickmaking was stopped at the Cocking works. Production of agricultural lime continued until 1999 under the Dudman Group, after which the works were left abandoned.
The Explore
Making our way from the nearby car park, we peeled off the South Downs Way and made our way in toward the south side of the chalk pit to take in the remains of the two dragline excavators which had been left in the quarry. A neatly stacked pile of engine parts and boxes in the centre of the quarry, roped off and covered in tarpaulin, seemed to hint at some more recent activity in the area.Following a leisurely meander through the quarry section, we turned our attention to the task of finding the workings themselves, hidden away somewhat more elusively in the forest. It was at this point that we decided to take the needlessly difficult route through the somewhat sheer valley to the North of the quarry and then over a sheep field, ignoring the clearly marked track on Google Maps which a later visit revealed to be the old service road leading directly to the primary crusher.
A short and much-needed break after scrambling up the side of a valley in the June heat.
Rather wobbly ladder between the Intermediate Crusher and Screen Plant.
Another view of some sort of chalk crushing apparatus.
Lime workings viewed from just beyond the treeline.
