This is somewhat of an update thread with a better selection of photos, as on my previous visit in August 2020 all I did was run around with my phone - it was nice to be able to reshoot this after putting it off for so long, for a local place it really isn't too bad given the slim pickings around here. Visited on a day of local fun with @Landie_Man who I hadn't seen in far too long.
As in my previous post on the subject back in 2020, there really isn't too much concrete information on the numerous former, current and repurposed gravel pits that litter this area of West Oxfordshire. Many former ones have been converted into fishing lakes, one is now Standlake Arena (my second home), there are a few still active gravel pit quarries and then this disused one. I have no idea how old it actually is, however the only snippet of information I could find at the time was that it was brought back into use in 2002 by Hanson after a period of mothballing of unknown length, and closed at some point in the early 2010s although again a firm date is impossible to find.
The quarry itself is actually a decent wander - all of the machinery which screened the sand and gravel into grades is still there, plus the weighbridge and office (still locked), plus an entire other complete but dismantled set of machinery sat in the bushes off to one side - at a guess the company replaced all of their older equipment with the stuff that currently sits in the middle of the site, and simply discarded the old machinery to the edges of the quarry.
A nice, relaxed, stress free wander, although with a somewhat fraught battle through the undergrowth to get into it, thankfully we found an easier route out. Only one minor scare happened when I very nearly walked straight in front of a worker in the next door fishing lakes, who decided he wanted to walk towards the very see-through boundary fence at the exact moment I was walking past it - thankfully he was too engrossed on his phone to hear the crunchy gravel footsteps we were making.
Thanks for looking
As in my previous post on the subject back in 2020, there really isn't too much concrete information on the numerous former, current and repurposed gravel pits that litter this area of West Oxfordshire. Many former ones have been converted into fishing lakes, one is now Standlake Arena (my second home), there are a few still active gravel pit quarries and then this disused one. I have no idea how old it actually is, however the only snippet of information I could find at the time was that it was brought back into use in 2002 by Hanson after a period of mothballing of unknown length, and closed at some point in the early 2010s although again a firm date is impossible to find.
The quarry itself is actually a decent wander - all of the machinery which screened the sand and gravel into grades is still there, plus the weighbridge and office (still locked), plus an entire other complete but dismantled set of machinery sat in the bushes off to one side - at a guess the company replaced all of their older equipment with the stuff that currently sits in the middle of the site, and simply discarded the old machinery to the edges of the quarry.
A nice, relaxed, stress free wander, although with a somewhat fraught battle through the undergrowth to get into it, thankfully we found an easier route out. Only one minor scare happened when I very nearly walked straight in front of a worker in the next door fishing lakes, who decided he wanted to walk towards the very see-through boundary fence at the exact moment I was walking past it - thankfully he was too engrossed on his phone to hear the crunchy gravel footsteps we were making.
Thanks for looking
