Report - Mount Pleasant quarry - Bath - September 2020

[nattyurbex]

There are a number of reports on the underground workings at Mount Pleasant quarry but none that I can find of the surface workings and buildings so I thought I would post a few of my photos.

History
Mount Pleasant quarry is a bath stone quarry on Combe Down. It was owned by Issac Sumsion and provided stone to build the houses of parliment. The quarry closed in the 1890s but the site reopened in the 1920s and a company called Bathite started to produce artificial stone products such as stone faced concrete blocks there. This continued until the 1980s when it shut.

The explore
I had discovered this place on a walk during the first lockdown and finally got round to spending a few hours exploring it one sunny day in Semptember. There are many buildings to look round however most are empty. There was some old machinery in the main warehouse though and some old company leaflets in the main entrance building. There was a lot of broken asbestos everywhere so I had to be very careful where I was walking and this made the explore quite a bit longer than I had planned.

Entrance to the underground quarry

The whole quarry was full of buddleia so I can imagine it is full of butterflies during the summer

Ramp leading up to a chute onto a conveyor belt.

The main entrance building. It seems to demonstrate a variety of the different products manufactured at the site to show what can be achieved.

One of the old company leaflets pinned to the notice board.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Love the look of that building in the second last pic

 

[Calamity Jane]

Same as BG that second to last snap is great. The building looks newer than the rest too! Nice design though

 

[nattyurbex]

Same as BG that second to last snap is great. The building looks newer than the rest too! Nice design though

Thanks, it is definatley the most interesting and unique building in the quarry. My guess is it was probably built in the 70s.

 

[block maker]

There are a number of reports on the underground workings at Mount Pleasant quarry but none that I can find of the surface workings and buildings so I thought I would post a few of my photos.

History
Mount Pleasant quarry is a bath stone quarry on Combe Down. It was owned by Issac Sumsion and provided stone to build the houses of parliment. The quarry closed in the 1890s but the site reopened in the 1920s and a company called Bathite started to produce artificial stone products such as stone faced concrete blocks there. This continued until the 1980s when it shut.

The explore
I had discovered this place on a walk during the first lockdown and finally got round to spending a few hours exploring it one sunny day in Semptember. There are many buildings to look round however most are empty. There was some old machinery in the main warehouse though and some old company leaflets in the main entrance building. There was a lot of broken asbestos everywhere so I had to be very careful where I was walking and this made the explore quite a bit longer than I had planned.

Entrance to the underground quarry

The whole quarry was full of buddleia so I can imagine it is full of butterflies during the summer

Ramp leading up to a chute onto a conveyor belt.

The main entrance building. It seems to demonstrate a variety of the different products manufactured at the site to show what can be achieved.

One of the old company leaflets pinned to the notice board.

I worked at Mount Pleasant for ten years leaving when it closed in 1991. Your post above was very informative and contained quite a lot that I never knew... so thanks for that.
Quite sad to see the old place in such a sad decay, and that they’ve not done a thing with the site. It was bought by the nearby private school who wanted it for floodlit hockey pitches, the nearby residents scuppered that one.
whilst working there we very often spent our lunch breaks exploring the mines although many tunnels from our open cast quarry were blocked up, and today are now buried under tons of hard core. The only opening being for the bats as one of your photos show.
it was possible to go from our place through the tunnels to another open cast quarry next door, from there the only open tunnel went east to the nearby Shaft Rd. Back in 1983 there was a roof collapse by the roadside, from ground level to the top of the roof was only about 18 inches.
The quarry/tunnels was adapted to protect the bats that inhabit below and which are still there and now have access... the rest was infilled.
The firm that closed made reconstructed Bath Stone blocks, cull and lintels etc (I myself was a block maker) it was bloody hard work. Today, as an old man, my body is worn out and falling apart due to the work I carried out there.
see photo from 1990:
I’ve recently contacted the school and since it is 30 years since it closed next month, I hope they grant my request to pay a final visit and pay my respects and say goodbye to all those that worked that place, most of whom are already passed away.
Thanks for allowing me to join your group... very interesting I must say.

 

[DeaKew]

Very atmospheric, looks like a cool place!

 

[block maker]

Very atmospheric, looks like a cool place!

As I said, Deakew, it was very very hard work. You sweat even when working below zero. Some interesting characters worked there, most now dead I expect.
the stone was crushed and remixed with cement which was then rammed into a mould using a vibrating hammer (Kango), backing was then added (semi dry concrete) to the mould, levelled off, then tamped down with a metal plate attached to the mould. You’d ‘tamp’ until metal hit metal then you knew the block was the uniform size (the stone faced block was usually 4 inch thick)
so all shovelling, ramming and tamping, all day every day. Few lasted long, I lasted ten years, big strong guys were useless, couldn’t hack it and did sweat like pigs, started one day and never returned.
Yes interesting guys, some were ex miners from out the country that started after the last Somerset mine closed. It was the sort of job you ended up in before retirement, or the job offered you to get you off the dole.
I’m returning soon, with permission from the owners, to say goodbye to the place and those that still work there, yes the voices and visions are only in my head but I can still recall them as if it were yesterday.

 

[nattyurbex]

I worked at Mount Pleasant for ten years leaving when it closed in 1991. Your post above was very informative and contained quite a lot that I never knew... so thanks for that.
Quite sad to see the old place in such a sad decay, and that they’ve not done a thing with the site. It was bought by the nearby private school who wanted it for floodlit hockey pitches, the nearby residents scuppered that one.
whilst working there we very often spent our lunch breaks exploring the mines although many tunnels from our open cast quarry were blocked up, and today are now buried under tons of hard core. The only opening being for the bats as one of your photos show.
it was possible to go from our place through the tunnels to another open cast quarry next door, from there the only open tunnel went east to the nearby Shaft Rd. Back in 1983 there was a roof collapse by the roadside, from ground level to the top of the roof was only about 18 inches.
The quarry/tunnels was adapted to protect the bats that inhabit below and which are still there and now have access... the rest was infilled.
The firm that closed made reconstructed Bath Stone blocks, cull and lintels etc (I myself was a block maker) it was bloody hard work. Today, as an old man, my body is worn out and falling apart due to the work I carried out there.
see photo from 1990:
I’ve recently contacted the school and since it is 30 years since it closed next month, I hope they grant my request to pay a final visit and pay my respects and say goodbye to all those that worked that place, most of whom are already passed away.
Thanks for allowing me to join your group... very interesting I must say.

Thankyou for the comment, I have not been able to find much history about the works online so it was very interesting to hear your stories of working there and the process involved in making the blocks. I recently went to have another look and a lot of vegetation has been cleared, maybe there are now plans fo the site, which has meant that there are a few more buildings that you can now explore and round the back of the main shed you can now find many neatly stacked piles of blocks and mouldings that were never taken away. It is great that the school have let you return and see the place again after many years