Their knowledge of the quarry boosted, our group of Society members made for the nearby cosy Cricket Inn, where their hunger, sharpened by a morning in the fresh air, could be satisfied. Here they chose from a menu of mouth-watering dishes, served in pleasant surroundings and with good company for enjoying leisurely conversation.
Altogether a most satisfying outing.
Sources: Anne Born, Blue Slate Quarrying in South Devon: An Ancient Industry;
Industrial Archaeology Review, Vol XI No 2 Autumn 1988
Sarah Prideaux Fox, Kingsbridge Estuary, 1864
OS grid reference for Beesands: SX822416
Members and friends enjoy the winter sunshine on the short walk from Beesands to Sunnydale Quarry
The picturesque setting of Sunnydale Quarry at Beesands
The entrance to the quarry, now blocked by winter storms
An intrepid climber seeks a closer view
Anne Born explains the workings of the quarry and answers questions
Quarried slate was shipped from the nearby bay
QUARRY VISIT AND ANNUAL LUNCH AT THE SEASIDE
From time to time during the year, the Society’s programme includes visits to places of interest. One such visit, in November 2005, was to Sunnydale Quarry, Beesands, followed by the Annual Lunch. The weather could not have been better, the sun shining on a crisp winter’s day, while the site, next to the pebble-and-sand shore, was a treat in itself.
Beesands is a tiny village on the shores of Start Bay, reached by driving very carefully along typical twisting, high-hedged Devonshire lanes, where you can’t see what may lie around the next bend and, if you do meet a vehicle coming the other way, one or the other of you has to back up. But everyone arrived safely, to find Ann Lidstone, the Society’s secretary, efficient as ever, greeting members as they arrived and directing them towards the quarry.
The quarry was sited about 10 or 15 minutes from the car park, depending on whether you sauntered or strode out along the path leading to it. I had only the previous day discovered that the cliff had been eroded so much by recent winter storms that the entrance was now about ten feet above beach level and too hard to climb. We were naturally disappointed not to be able to go right into this shoreside quarry from the end of the Beesands beach. Nevertheless, we viewed as much of the quarry as is now possible and I was able to give a brief history of the workings of the quarry, pointing out the main features and answering questions put by members of the group. Because roads of yore were in poor condition, it was a distinct advantage that the slate was quarried so close to the waters of the Bay that it could be loaded into ships and readily transported to other parts.
by Anne Born
This magnificent blue slate working was in use in the 18th century, if not earlier, the stone being used to build Widdicombe House and numerous walls in the neighbourhood.
The late Bob Roberts of Beesands, who wrote and published many valuable studies, found the sale catalogue of the quarry in the Devon Record Office and I was able to use it when writing my paper on Devon slate quarries. It provides a detailed picture of how the stone was won in the first half of that century. The lease, plant and machinery were auctioned on 19 July 1855, and work had stopped by then. The quarry and neighbouring farmland belonged to the local landowner, AH Holdsworth; he leased it to individuals who ran the company.
In her Kingsbridge Estuary, published in 1864, Sarah Prideaux Fox writes, “There used to be a steam engine and machinery for squaring the slates in the quarry”. The catalogue states that this was made in Scotland and possibly it came from a ship. There were a great number of smaller machines and implements, including lengths of rail for transporting finished slates out to the shore for loading onto ships beached at low tide, or round to the splitting floor outside; that was a hive of industry, pilchards were packed there and limestone, brought in by sea, calcined in the kiln by the shore. Besides powering machinery, the steam engine was used to pump out the relatively small amount of water in the quarry.
Now all is silent except for the wildlife who appreciate the peace here. A rusty iron ladder rises on the right side of the quarry a few steps in through the cut cleft entrance, up to the cliff top where men from Torcross must have walked to work. It is known locally as Jacob’s Ladder. When Henry Williamson, the North Devon writer, walked along the South Devon coast, some children from Torcross took him to the quarry and invited him through ‘”the oven door”, a short tunnel near the top leading to another small revealed blue slate face never much worked.
Photo credits: J. Fairweather-Tall
