PDF - Combe Down Stone Mines

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Life in Combe Down
Despite its many historical features Combe Down
is not a museum but a living, working village in the
twenty-first century. According to the 2008 Electoral
Register Combe Down houses a population of
approximately 1700 people. It still retains its village
atmosphere despite its proximity (1.5 miles) to Bath.
There are local shops, pubs, chapels and churches
within walking distance of most residents. Shops
in the village include a Co-op, a newsagent’s, a
delicatessen with coffee shop, an estate agency
and a building society together with a barber’s, two
hair salons and a beautician’s salon. Barclays Bank
maintains a small branch on North Road. Combe
Down has flourishing rugby and cricket clubs,
Church Rooms, a doctor’s surgery and a dentist as
well as an active Scout Group (10th Bath) with its
own scouts’ hut and an active local heritage group
the Combe Down Heritage Society.
War memorial on Firs Field before
and during the stabilisation project
Combe Down Nursery (located on Combe Road)
provides local nursery education for children aged
between 1 and 5 years and in the 1930s housed
a telephone exchange. The local primary school
catering for the ages between 5 and 11 is Combe
Down Primary School. It is housed partly in a unique
log cabin imported from Finland in 1990. An after
school club is also run at the nursery school. An
earlier school building on the corner of Belmont
Road and Church Road is now a private residence.
Combe Down is within the catchment area of Ralph
Allen School on Claverton Down Road. In addition
both Monkton School’s pre-prep department
(Glenburnie) and its preparatory School are located
in the village. Prior Park College, a Catholic boarding
and day school for boys and girls now occupies
Ralph Allen’s former home.
The village green (Firs Field) includes a war memorial
and a play area with children’s play equipment that
was renewed and renovated in 2006. Most of this
field has been utilised by the mine in-fill project. The
Friends of Firs Field has been set up to represent
residents’ interests and participate in the restoration
of the field.
Holy Trinity Church dates to the point in Combe
Down’s history where it was attracting greater
numbers of the middle class in the 1830s. It was
designed by Henry Edmund Goodridge (1797-1864),
the designer of Beckford’s Tower on the other side of
the city. The foundation stone was laid in May 1832
and the church consecrated on 29th June 1835.
It was not until 1854 that Combe Down became
an independent parish. No burials took place in its
churchyard, as the ground is too hard, with rock very
close to the surface.
The Union Chapel on Church Road was opened in
1815. It has been extended several times over the
last two centuries. Its grounds were used for burials
until May 1916, up to nine bodies in one grave have
been reported.
Life in Combe Down continued
The Bath Jewish Burial Ground is on Bradford Road.
There are around 50 gravestones. The earliest date
is 1842. The walled yard contains a prayer room
in the corner. Although the last interment is said to
have been in 1942, the latest gravestone date is
1921. It was deemed to be of considerable historic
importance and was listed by English Heritage in
April 2006. It has been opened to the public on
selected dates during the year.
The village’s biggest employer is probably the
Ministry of Defence’s establishment on Bradford
Road. The M.O.D.’s presence here dates back
to 1939 when Government offices were built to
accommodate Admiralty staff dispersed from
London. In earlier times the gates were guarded by
naval ratings, standing behind barbed wire – a great
contrast to Combe Down’s more usual, peaceful
inhabitants.
The village pubs are the King William IV, the
Horseshoe, the Hadley Arms and the Forester and
Flower. The King William IV on Combe Road was
opened in October 1830 and was the site of the
Combe Down Brewery. The brewery was closed
in the 1880s but the building’s asymmetrical front
suggests that the original building was extended
when the brewery was constructed. The Horseshoe
on Raby Place on North Road might date as far
back as 1848. Certainly by 1875 its occupant,
William Brooks, was listed as a blacksmith and a
beer seller. The blacksmith’s forge at the back of
the pub continued to be operated until World War
Two. Although it originally consisted of three bars
these have been knocked through into one although
it still retains the old layout. The Hadley Arms, on
North Road, was built by a quarry-master, Samuel
Spence and used as a place to pay his men as well
as a public house. Named after the Hadley family
that owned land in Combe Down in the nineteenth
century it still retained its entrance to Firs Quarry
until the recent mines stablisation. The Forester
and Flower on Bradford Road was opened as a
beerhouse around 1835 by John Rudman and was
used as a meeting place for one of the two national
friendly societies of the time, the Foresters. It was
renamed the Forester and Flower in late 2006 when
it was taken over by Mrs Louise Flower.
Combe Down is the location for many listed buildings
of special architectural or historic importance.
In Bath as a whole there are nearly 4900 such
buildings. In the village and its surrounding area they
range from Ralph Allen’s Prior Park through to more
humble quarrymen’s dwellings. Much of the village’s
character is derived from its range of buildings and
more recent housing developments are careful not to
compromise those features.
View towards
King William IV
pub
Prior Park and its gardens remain one of the most
beautiful places to visit in Bath. The gardens, owned
by the National Trust, are open throughout the year
and attract growing numbers of visitors. In recent
years the gardens have seen both archaeological
and renovation work returning them to what Ralph
Allen envisaged in the eighteenth century.
Combe Down has changed significantly over the
last three hundred years. Although change may well
occur in the future it seems certain that the village
will fight to balance the needs of residents and
economic necessity with its historic past.
Harry Patch
Harry Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009)
Henry John Patch was born in Combe Down in
1898. His family home, ‘Fonthill’, now known as
‘Fonthill Cottage’ is still in existence, on Gladstone
Road. He attended Combe Down School, one of
two hundred children taught in four classes. His
memories of Combe Down included exploring the
underground quarries where he learned to read the
mason’s marks. Leaving school at 14 he worked as
an apprentice plumber. In 1916 he was conscripted
into the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Serving as
an assistant Lewis gunner between 1916 and 1918,
he was a private at the Battle of Passchendaele
where he was wounded and sent home. After the
war he returned to working as a plumber. During
World War Two he acted as a fireman.
Harry Patch was the last trench survivor of World
War One. A commemorative poem, ‘The Five Acts
of Harry Patch’ was written by the Poet Laureate,
Andrew Motion. November 2008 saw the Master
of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell premier
his choral work setting Motion’s words to music.
In August 2007 Patch’s autobiography, written in
conjunction with Richard van Emden, ‘The Last
Fighting Tommy’ was published, making him one of
oldest authors ever.
At a private ceremony on 27th September 2008
Harry Patch opened a memorial on the bank of the
Steenbeek where he had crossed the river in 1917.
It reads:
Here, at dawn, on 16th August 1917, the 7th
Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 20th
(Light) Division, crossed the Steenbeek prior to their
successful assault on the village of Langemarck. This
stone is erected to the memory of fallen comrades,
and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing
of the Great War generation. It is the gift of former
Private and Lewis Gunner Harry Patch, No. 29295,
C Company, 7th DCLI, the last surviving veteran to
have served in the trenches of the Western Front.
In July 2007, to mark the 90th anniversary of the
beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele Harry
Patch revisited the battleground to pay his respects
to the fallen of both sides. At the time he commented
on the graves, saying:
‘Anyone of them could be me. Millions of men came
to fight this war and I find it incredible that I am the
only one left.’
People and Personalities
Ralph Allen
Ralph Allen (1693–1764) is generally recognised
as being one of the key figures in the creation of
Georgian Bath. He was baptised in St. Columb
Major, Cornwall in 1693. Showing an early talent for
business he came to Bath in 1712, becoming deputy
postmaster. He devised a scheme for improving
the efficiency of the postal system and, winning the
contract for the south-west, by the early 1720s was
turning a £12000 a year profit.
Marrying Elizabeth Buckridge, the daughter of a
London merchant in 1721, he used a house near
the Abbey as both a home and an office before
purchasing land in Combe Down for the site of his
mansion, Prior Park. To develop the area’s mines and
transport the stone down the hill to the riverside, a
wooden railway almost 2 miles long was constructed
at a cost of £10,000. It enabled Allen to achieve a
near monopoly in Bath building stone, cutting its
cost and stimulated a small export trade. In 1725
Allen became chief treasurer of the Avon navigation
scheme that enabled the movement of materials
along the river allowing Bath to expand into a major
spa resort. Not surprisingly he was soon a major
employer in the city.
Palladian Bridge, Prior Park
By the mid-1730s Allen had cemented a professional
partnership with the architect John Wood the elder,
creating the showpiece mansion at Prior Park,
ready for occupation by 1741. Prior Park proved
to be a fine example of English Palladianism and,
situated in its elevated position overlooking the
city, advertised the virtues of the Bath stone from
Allen’s Combe Down quarries. It became a centre
of culture with writers, poets and painters amongst
the regular visitors. Allen acquired a reputation as a
philanthropist and it is estimated that he gave away
more than £1000 a year to causes such as Bath
General Hospital. This reputation was celebrated
in Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749) where a
fictionalised Allen appears as Squire Alworthy and
Jones’ 1751 novel, Amelia, was dedicated to him.
Allen served as mayor of Bath in 1742 and acted
as a justice of the peace for Somerset from 1749.
He died at Prior Park in June 1764 and is buried at
Claverton church.
Ralph Allen
William Smith
William Smith (23 March 1769 – 28 August 1839)
is known as the ‘father of English geology’ and
credited with the creation of the first nationwide
geological map. His map was plagiarised and
at first overlooked by the scientific community. It
was only later in his life that he was recognised for
his work. He was born in Churchill, Oxfordshire
the son of a farmer. In 1787 he found work as an
assistant to a surveyor, Edward Webb of Stowon-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. He quickly became
proficient at the trade and four years later moved to
Somerset working first for Webb, then later for the
Somersetshire Coal Canal Company.
On Smith’s release he worked as a surveyor until one
of his clients, Sir John Johnstone, recognised him
and began to rehabilitate his reputation. In February
1831 the Geological Society of London conferred
on Smith the first Wollaston medal for achievement.
Its president, Adam Sedgewick, called him the
‘father of English geology’. In 1838 he was one of
the commissioners appointed to select the building
stone for the new Palace of Westminster. He died
in Northampton in 1839, where he is buried. His
map, on which modern British geological maps are
based, is still on display at the Geological Society in
London. A plaque on Tucking Mill Cottage, although
incorrectly placed, records his achievements. Smith’s
own Tucking Mill House is a few metres away, up the
lane.
© The Natural History Museum, London
During his work he discovered that rock strata were
arranged in a predictable pattern in the Earth. He
began a search to see if this relationship between
the strata and their characteristics was the same
throughout the country, taking samples, mapping
and drawing cross-sections of what he saw. In 1799
Smith produced the first large-scale geological map
of the area around Bath, using colour to distinguish
different rock types. By 1815 he had published
a geological map of England, Wales and part of
Scotland remarkably similar to modern examples.
Such was the usefulness of these maps that they
were copied and sold at much reduced prices. As
a result of a debt involving Tucking Mill, Smith was
made bankrupt, and ended in debtors’ prison.
Strata in rock
William Smith
Phillip Nowell
Philip Nowell (1781–1853) In 1806 the architect
James Wyatt engaged Philip Nowell, at the age
of just 25, as master mason on the remodelling
of Longleat House, Wiltshire. As ‘builder’ it was
Nowell’s responsibility to source the huge amount
of Bath stone needed. On the project’s completion,
Nowell was retained by the Marquis of Bath as
a stonemason/builder for the estate. The regular
income from these projects enabled a number of
Combe Down quarries, including that of Nowell’s
father Samuel to stay in business through the
economic slump of 1815 onwards.
In 1823 Philip seems to have taken charge of the
quarry, displacing his elder brother. Nowell’s next
project, with the added benefit of Royal patronage,
was the four-year remodelling of parts of Windsor
Castle. Following this the rebuilding of Buckingham
Palace by John Nash used Bath stone. In order to
transport it, new wharf facilities were built on the
Grosvenor canal. Nowell bought the lease on one
of these and was able to able to supply Bath stone
directly to the London market, transporting it via the
Kennet and Avon canal at seven tenths of the price
Longleat House
of its nearest rival. By this time the family quarry was
exhausted and Nowell returned to Combe Down to
oversee the construction of his own home, Rock
Hall.
Nowell gained prestigious contracts for refacing the
exterior of the Duke of Wellington’s Apsley House
and the Duke of York column at Waterloo Place
that produced a payment of a massive £15,760. In
1836 he became the master mason of the ‘West
of London and Westminster Cemetery Co.’ A
vast Bath stone chapel was planned but financial
problems were encountered and by 1841 Nowell
was advancing his own money to the company. In
1852 due to insufficient space for the less well off
and continuing money problems the General Board
of Health bought the cemetery.
In some ways, the successor to Ralph Allen in his
championing the use of Bath stone his success led
to the revitalisation of Combe Down’s mining trade
as Bath stone became a fashionable material in the
capital. Philip Nowell died in 1853 and was interred
in a ‘Gothic shrine’ tomb at Brompton.
Ecosystems of the Mine and Surrounding Area
The village of Combe Down and its surrounding area
plays host to an interesting diversity of plant and
animal life. Of particular interest are the bats, which
include at least 10 different species. The area’s
stone-working past has provided an unusual
man-made habitat that has been colonised or used
in some way by these bats. Some bats use the
mine for hibernating and as a maternity roost. The
mines are likely to have been used in these ways
since stone mining ceased. Because of this special
conservation interest the stone mines form part
of the Bath and Bradford on Avon Special Area
of Conservation. This is a protected wildlife site of
European importance which supports about 19% of
the UK’s Greater Horseshoe bat population. In order
for the mines’ stabilisation scheme to go ahead
these bat populations had to be safeguarded. Bath
and North East Somerset Council worked closely
with Natural England and several fully stabilised
caverns have been created for the bats in the mines.
Early indications suggest that these measures will be
successful and help to retain these important bats in
Combe Down.
The Greater Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus
Ferrumequinum) lives within the mines complex
at Combe Down. Within the United Kingdom they
are found mainly in the South West of England and
South Wales although in recent years the British
population has declined and is very fragmented.
In 1995 the British pre-breeding population
was estimated to be around 4000. The greater
Horseshoe bat is on the verge of becoming a
threatened species worldwide and is classified as
Endangered within Europe.
They are buff in colour although older adults may be
darker and reddish while females may be chestnut
brown. The young are pale grey. They are covered
in fluffy fur and are easily identified by a horseshoe
shaped flap of skin surrounding the nostrils.
The bat mates from autumn to spring but mainly
in late September or October. One young is born
between mid-June to the end of July, occasionally
in August. Greater Horseshoe bats are the longest
lived of any European bat. The maximum age of a
Horseshoe bat recorded in Europe is 30 years.
Taken by Dr Roger Ransome with
permission of Natural England
In summer the bat roosts with its offspring in old
buildings. Nursery roosts can contain up to 200
females. Greater Horseshoe bats wrap their wings
around their body and hang freely by their feet either
with their offspring or in small groups. Adult males
can be found in the nursery roosts but leave when
the young are born in mid-summer. In winter they
hibernate from September/October through to April
in warmer regions of caves or similar environments.
The exact timing depends on the weather and
the availability of food. Breeding females tend to
hibernate before other individuals. They hang freely
from the roof with males found either singly or in
dense groups of up to 300. Adult females tend to be
solitary in winter. Hibernation is interrupted between
once a day and once every 6-10 days depending on
the temperature and the time of year to feed near
the cave entrance or to change roost site. Females
return to the same winter roost each year.
Their preferred habitat is in areas of mixed deciduous
woodland and grazing pasture on steep south-facing
slopes. They live in caves and similar environments
in habitats with scrub and open trees away from
human disturbance. They need a series of caves in
order to have a variety of temperatures and air-flow
patterns.
Juvenile Greater Horseshoe bats
Ecosystems of the Mine and Surrounding Area continued
The Lesser Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus
hipposideros) is another resident of the Combe
Down area. Much smaller than the Greater
Horseshoe bat they weigh only 5-9g compared with
13-34g. In appearance they tend to be covered in a
long, pale greyish brown fur although youngsters are
a darker grey. It can also be distinguished from the
Greater Horseshoe by its size.
A single young is born between June and July. On
average they live for around four years although in
Europe one specimen was recorded at 21.
They are distributed throughout the South West
of England and in most of Wales however their
populations tend to be localised so they are still rare.
They like sheltered valleys, woodland edge, pasture
and wetlands. It is the loss of their foraging habitat
that may be responsible for their declining numbers.
In Europe nursery roosts are found from April to
October. They usually contain 30-70 females but
occasionally as many as 200 may be present.
Females frequently change their roosts during the
summer months, showing a preference for roosts
that can be accessed by interrupted flight. They like
to roost in warm buildings like attics or boiler rooms
and cave-like environments. They hang freely by their
feet in warm sites with abundant food or in clusters
of up to 150 in colder roosts. Here they hang with
their wings wrapped around their bodies.
In winter they hibernate from October through to
April and are active during the day in spring and
autumn. They roost in caves or similar environments,
hanging freely high above the ground although they
can be found in the lower crevices. Groups may be
close together but clusters do not occur.
In 1995 the pre-breeding population was estimated
at 14,000 divided equally between England and
Wales. In the last 50 years lesser horseshoe bats
have become extinct in the north midlands and
northern England.
A local woodland wild flower is the Bath Asparagus,
also known as the Spiked Star of Bethlehem
(Ornithogalum pyreaicum). The plant is scarce
nationally but is found in greater numbers in the
Bath area, and particularly Combe Down. The leaves
resemble bluebell leaves but are a softer green and
not as glossy. The star shaped flowers appear in
June, after the leaves die, and are of a greenishwhite colour. The flowering spike can reach up to
one metre high. It can be found on shady roadside
verges, open woodlands and hedgerows.
At the unopened stage the flowers used to be
gathered in small quantities as a fresh vegetable by
local people; it was also occasionally sold in local
markets. However because the plant is nationally
scarce and slow to spread into new areas picking
the flowers is discouraged. According to research
carried out by the Avon Wildlife Trust the plant is
found throughout Europe but has only a limited UK
distribution. In the Bath and North East Somerset
area 85 sites were identified in the mid-1990s, mainly
situated around Keynsham and the South of Bath.
The main threats to the plant include habitat loss,
development of land, overgrazing of woodland by
deer, and the picking of the plant by humans. It is
possible that the flower was brought to Bath area as
seeds carried on the wheels and hooves of Roman
vehicles and animals 2000 years ago.
Bath asparagus
Stone Mines and Mining in Combe Down
The Great Oolite stone, known popularly as Bath
stone and found beneath Combe Down, formed over
146 million years ago, in the middle Jurassic period
when the Combe Down area was beneath a deep
tropical sea on the bed of which the shells of dead
prehistoric sea-creatures (ooliths) were deposited.
Over the millions of years that followed ooliths
bonded together in the sea sediment to form oolitic
limestone.
This oolitic limestone has been extracted from the
earth at Combe Down since Roman times. The
Romans discovered it was easily worked and used
it for important local buildings like the Roman Baths,
Bath. After the Romans left Britain in 410 A.D. there
is little evidence of large-scale use of the stone
locally until the 16th and 17th centuries. The first
mention of underground quarrying or mining is in
the 1680s. By this stage the stone was extracted
by the so-called ‘room and pillar’ method by which
chambers were mined, leaving pillars of stone to
support the roof.
The walls and pillars of the mine are studded with
pick and other tool-marks and show evidence of
the use of large stone saws showing the different
extraction methods during the mine’s long history.
In addition much of the workers’ graffiti on the walls
remained in situ.
There was no coherent record of the mines’
abandonment. Following their closure they were
used for a wide variety of purposes including a
mushroom farm and air-raid shelters during World
War Two. With a lack of human activity the mines
became home to other creatures, such as bats.
In 1991 the mines’ importance as a habitat was
recognised when they were notified as a Site of
Special Scientific Interest housing populations of
endangered Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats.
In 1989 whist excavating a trench a contractor
unexpectedly broke through into part of the
mines complex. The lack of definitive maps of the
mines complicated matters. Bath City Council
commissioned a survey of the mines that discovered
they were in an unstable state. It was found that
around 80% of the mines, with some voids up to
8m high had less than 6m cover and some less than
2m. This resulted in a major stabilisation programme
involving in-filling the 22 hectares of empty caverns
with over 590,000 cubic metres of foamed concrete.
This process was completed in 2009.
Today there is only one active quarry in Combe
Down. It is known as the Upper Lawn Quarry and
run by John Hancock and Sons. It has been owned
and run by the family since 1850. Its stone has
been used in the restoration of Buckingham Palace,
Windsor Castle and Brighton Pavilion.
The zenith of Combe Down’s stone mines was
reached in the 18th and early 19th centuries when
Ralph Allen became an advocate for Bath stone and
its qualities. As a result Bath stone has been used
in the vast majority of Bath’s buildings for the last
three hundred years. Ralph Allen’s entrepreneurship
led to one of the first railways in Britain. On his death
in 1764 the quarries passed to Earl de Montalt who
had little interest in continuing to develop them.
The mines were leased to individual quarrymen
who continued to run them. On de Montalt’s death
in 1803 the mines were finally sold to those who
worked them. An 1852 map shows several freestone
quarries with a variety of owners operating around
the village. The coming of the railways allowed
easier transportation of building materials, and
Combe Down in its hilly location found itself at a
disadvantage compared with other mines in Box and
Limpley Stoke. A gradual decline began.
Combe Down mine before stabilisation work
The Destination of Bath Stone
The destination for the Bath stone mined at Combe
Down has varied throughout the ages. In Roman
times the stone quarried from near the surface was
transported, probably by horse and cart to the
settlement of Aquae Sulis in the valley below. Here
the Roman stone masons used it in the construction
of their buildings such as the Roman Baths. Certainly
Bath stone was used in the construction of small
commemorative altars. One such altar can be dated
to approximately 67AD. As the settlement grew
undoubtedly the stone would have been used in
the construction of municipal buildings although the
passage of time has erased all evidence of many of
these.
At the end of the Roman occupation in 410AD the
use of Bath stone as a building material went into a
steep decline. There were still quarries on the Down
but they were small in both extent and number. In
the valley Roman buildings were robbed out, the
stone being used in more primitive dwellings.
In 1532 John Leland described his journey into Bath
from Midford through Combe Down as being ‘all by
mountains and quarre, little woods in site’. In 1726,
a local entrepreneur, Ralph Allen began purchasing
land in Combe Down.
The Circus, Bath
By 1744 he owned the entire area. In the company
of architect John Wood, Allen planned a complete
rebuilding of the city of Bath along planned lines to
capitalise on its hot springs. The material for this
rebuilding was to be Bath stone and the best, and
most local spot for mining was at Combe Down.
The extraction proved to be on an industrial scale
involving not just quarrying but the construction of
one of the earliest railways, opened in 1730 to move
the stone down to a wharf at Widcombe and the city
below. The railway enabled stone to be delivered to
the Avon at the cost of 7s 6d per ton, a worthwhile
reduction on the 10s previously charged. Over the
next few years the look of Bath was transformed
thanks to the stone from Combe Down. The Royal
Crescent, Pump Room and the Circus are just a
few of the many buildings inspired either directly or
indirectly by the work of Wood and Allen.
Ralph Allen’s ambition for the use of Bath stone
extended beyond its local use. He realised that the
Avon Navigation would allow the simplification of the
transport of stone around the country. Transporting
the stone to the bustling port of Bristol would
even allow it to move internationally. Bath stone
subsequently found good use in the buildings of
Dublin and Belfast. Allen’s own house, Prior Park
was constructed at Combe Down with its impressive
Palladian architecture partially as an advertisement
for Bath stone and its use. This period probably
represented the golden age of Bath stone usage.
Ralph Allen died in 1764. His estates eventually
passed to the Earl de Montalt who had little interest
in the quarries of Combe Down. By 1770 Allen’s
stone tramway, by now life expired, had been
abandoned. The quarries were leased to individuals
who had to revert to horse and cart to move the
stone along narrow and inadequate roads. Bath
stone became more expensive. The Turnpike trusts
and the opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal in
1810 to some extent reversed this trend and once
again allowed the stone to be used nationally. The
good quality of the stone produced in the Byfield
mine was used in the remodelling of Longleat House
for the Marquis of Bath. This caught the attention
of King William IV who commissioned the stone’s
use in the rebuilding of Windsor Castle. The original
plans of Buckingham Palace also made use of Bath
The Destination of Bath Stone continued
stone. However, changes in architect, cost over-runs
and other factors meant that the famous façade was
made of Portland stone while the rest of the building
was constructed from the stone mined in Combe
Down when it was opened in 1834.
Underground evidence suggests that, by 1840,
most of the usable stone had been quarried out.
New sources were discovered in Box and Corsham,
providing an alternative supply. Their proximity
to the Great Western Railway made them more
economically viable. Combe Down’s quarries started
to decline in importance. Although some mines
continued in use until well into the 20th century they
were not the major employers that they had been
earlier in the area’s history.
Combe Down quarry
Today only one mine in the Combe Down area
continues to operate. The Upper Lawn Quarry has
been owned by the Hancock family since 1850. The
stone mined at the Upper Lawn Quarry has been
used in the restoration of such prestigious buildings
as Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Brighton
Pavilion. In addition its stone is still in demand for
new buildings. As such it represents a link with life on
Combe Down going back nearly 200 years.
Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation
The mines of Combe Down, or more accurately
its underground quarries, are of Oolitic Limestone.
Extraction was by the ‘room and pillar’ method.
This is where chambers are mined, leaving pillars
of rock to support the roof and land above. Such
was the popularity of Bath stone, championed by
local entrepreneur Ralph Allen and architect John
Wood, that most of the buildings constructed in
the eighteenth century redevelopment of Bath were
made from stone produced either on or under
Combe Down. By the 1880s many of these mines
had closed but, as there were no accurate maps of
the mine workings, buildings were constructed on
top. Indeed some roads and houses were found to
be resting on a thin layer of ground, in some places
estimated to be as little as 1-2 metres thick.
An underground survey of the Firs and Byfield
mine areas was carried out in the early 1990’s,
commissioned by Bath City Council. It was
discovered that around 80% of the mines had
less than 6m cover. Approximately 760 properties
covering an area of around 22 hectares were directly
affected. From 2001 a programme funded by the
government through English Partnerships began to
stabilise the abandoned workings. An Environmental
Impact Assessment was completed and submitted
as part of a planning application in December 2002.
Constructing the bat galleries in Byfield mine
The £159 million funding for the work came from
the Land Stabilisation Programme that was set up
in 1999 to deal with ‘abandoned non-coal mine
workings likely to collapse and threaten life and
property’. The urgency of the scheme meant that
£22.7 million was used immediately for emergency
work even before the main project was approved.
Aside from the mines the Combe Down area is
important as it is:
Within the World Heritage Site of the City of Bath
Adjacent to the Cotswold Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty
Within a conservation area
Home to a number of listed buildings
A Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Special area of Conservation for bats
Of international importance as a habitat of the
Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bat
Of international geological importance due to the
work of William Smith
The mines have been stabilised to satisfy a 100year design life while ensuring that the bat habitats
are protected. The scheme involved filling the
voids left by the removal of the stone with foamed
concrete. Bat habitats were provided in the form of
strengthened ‘bat caverns’.
In view of the area’s important archaeology,
archaeological recording was carried out. The mine
contained a range of historical features. The walls
and pillars showed the marks of being worked
by hand, being covered with pick and other tool
marks. Miners’ graffiti also bears testimony to the
mines long history. Important examples have been
removed from the pillars for safekeeping. Others, of
lesser significance, have had their imprint removed.
This was achieved by painting the rock face with an
adhesive rubber solution then peeling off the graffiti.
This imprint is then transferred onto a silicon base.
This method has the advantage of preserving the
actual graffiti rather than an impression of it. It has
been used for larger pieces or where removing the
rock itself would cause safety or mine stabilisation
problems. In addition any significant graffiti has been
Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation continued
photographed, and sketched in situ. The graffiti
on the mines’ surfaces includes names, dates and
drawings of local personalities. The archeological
survey of the mines, undertaken by Oxford
Archaeology from 2001, recovered amongst other
items oil lamps, candles, clay pipes and a hoard of
Victorian pottery.
In order to preserve the layout of the mine for future
study a 3D ‘fly-through’ model/video has been
produced.
To provide the underground bat chambers the
tunnel walls were enclosed in a structural steel
mesh sprayed with concrete, leaving a semi-smooth
surface suitable for bats. The archaeological features
that fall within the bats’ caves have been temporarily
protected and can be exposed in future if required.
As part of the mines’ legacy a range of public art
was commissioned. There were commissions
made to a photographer, a poet, two sculptors, a
composer and a film maker. Neville Gabie took a
series of photographs contrasting the work on the
mines with village life continuing above. Alec Peever
designed entrances for the new wall along The Firs
Field while sculptor and visual artist Chris Tipping
produced a map of the mines that was reproduced
on more than 700 plates which were distributed to
houses above the mine in Combe Down. Music was
composed by Paul Englishby who has worked with
the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Graffiti in the mine and Chris Tipping’s plates
Combe Down Stone Mines
Teachers’
Notes
2 • Combe Down Stone Mines • Teachers’ Notes
Welcome to this Teachers’ pack
Although it is principally concerned with the mines and village of Combe Down it could, with
adaption, be used for any village study. The activities suggested have been divided in to KS
1, 2 and 3 although obviously they can be adapted as desired. For further information there
are a variety of other materials that may be of interest. They include a CD of photographs of
the village and a collection of background information sheets. These suggestions are by no
means exhaustive but hopefully they will be useful in stimulating interest in Combe Down and
its surrounding area.
Planning a visit
A preliminary walk around the village is essential. Although Combe Down is not a large village
walking between its different areas may take some time. It is important to remember that
there is a lack of covered accomodation and that some of the smaller lanes do not have
pavements.
Car parking
Car parking around Combe Down is limited.
Health and Safety considerations
There are many busy roads around Combe Down. Although the streets that form the village
centre are quieter it is important to realise that they are, for the most part, residential areas.
Students should be made aware that the village is a place where people live and work.
Combe Down Stone Mines • Teachers’ Notes • 3
Key Stage 1
Stone soup
This story is a traditional story from South America. It can be used as a basis for looking
at materials and their properties or stimulus for art activities. If the final line is left out the
children can decide whether the stone was actually magic and what the moral of the story is.
Alternatively children could try and retell the story as a comic strip or in a series of pictures.
(English, 2A, 2C, 2D, I.C.T. 2A)
Stone Story: Stone soup
A kindly old stranger was walking through the land when he
came to a small village. As he went into the village he was
surprised to find that all the people ran away from him. They
ran to their houses, locked their doors and windows, and
stared at him.
‘Why are you all so frightened?’ asked the Stranger. ‘I am a
simple traveller, looking for a nice, soft bed for the night and a
warm place for a meal’
‘There is not a bite to eat in the whole village’ someone
shouted back at him. ‘We are weak and our children are
starving. No bed or food for you here.’
‘Oh, I have everything I need here,’ he said. ‘ In fact I was just
thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.’
He pulled an iron pan from his bag, filled it with water and
began to make a fire under it.
Then, very carefully, with great ceremony he pulled an ordinary
piece of stone from his bag and dropped it into the water.
By now, hearing the rumour that someone had some food
most of the villagers started to come out of their homes to
see what was happening. The Stranger sniffed his ‘soup’ and
licked his lips. The villagers were even hungrier than before.
‘Ah, ‘ said the Stranger ‘I love tasty stone soup! Of course,
stone soup with cabbage is even better!’
One villager approached the Stranger, holding a cabbage that
he had got from his hiding place, and dropped it into the pot.
‘Wonderful, ‘ cried the Stranger,’ I once had stone soup with
cabbage AND carrots as well. That was fit for a king!’
Another villager ran away and found some carrots from the
bottom of his garden.
And so it went on. Potatoes, onions, mushrooms, even the
village butcher managed to find some meat to put into the
stone soup until there was a delicious meal for everyone to
share.
When they had finished eating, the villagers offered the
Stranger lots of money for the magic stone that could make
such wonderful soup, but the Stranger said no.
The next day the Stranger started to walk to the next village.
As he left he came across some of the village children, waiting
for him. He smiled at the youngest of the children and gave
her his stone saying;
‘The stone is not magic, but because everyone shared what
they had, everyone was able to enjoy the soup.’
Stone Soup
Make a bat
Use the template provided to make a bat. It can be stuck to card, textured with cotton wool,
tissue paper etc. and then painted. A cardboard box can be made into a suitable bat habitat
of cave, tunnel or house attic. (Art and Design Unit 1B, 2A, 5A, Science 1C, 2B, 4B)
Hand in stone
The Combe Down stone miners used to write directions and other messages on the stone
pillars of the mines. Sometimes they would draw on the stone. Using Model Magic or a
similar modelling material make ‘stone’ pillars with individual messages on them. Alternatively
make hand prints in slabs of clay. (Art and Design 5a)
Materials for Houses
Look at pictures of the houses of Combe Down included on the CD. How many different
materials are needed to construct each building. (Art and Design 2C, Design and Technology
1D, History Unit 2, Science 3D)
Build a model house from different classroom materials
Which house is most comfortable to live in? Which is warmest, or most waterproof?
(Art and Design 2C, Design and Technology 1D, Science 3D, 4C)
Make bricks from clay
Build a wall. Which wall is best? How could the wall be improved? Different bonding between
the bricks? Putting mortar between the bricks to cement them? (Design and Technology 1D,
History Unit 2, Science 4C)
Stone games
Children in other cultures often had to use the simplest materials to play their games. Give the
children five stones or pebbles. What games can they devise? Stress that the games must be
safe to play for the children themselves and for those around them. Write instructions so that
someone else can enjoy the game.
People at work
Look at the photographs of Combe Down included on the CD. Where do people work and
what different jobs do they do? Does the children’s locality have more or fewer jobs? Why
might this be?
Key Stage 2
Reconstruct a Roman pot
In order to discover how people lived in the past it is often important for archaeologists to
reconstruct their finds. This was the case with some of the Roman pottery discovered at
Combe Down. Reconstruction of a pot or other artefact can require a steady hand, and good
spatial skills to identify where all the pieces fit. The reconstruction can be made much easier if
a record of the object in its broken state is available.
What you need:
• Each participant needs a small terracotta plant pot
• PVA glue, preferably in a dispenser
• A roll of masking tape
• An old newspaper
• A damp cloth
• An apron
• Hammer or mallet
What you do
Wrap the plant pot in the newspaper. Hit the pot once or twice with the hammer or mallet to
break it into large shards. With children it is best to have an adult wield the hammer.
Now, open up the newspaper and put the pot back together using the pva to stick the
fragments together. Apply pva to one side only of the joint then push tightly together,
squeezing out the surplus glue, which can be wiped with finger (and then on to a cloth). You
may need to use the masking tape to hold the parts of the pot together while it dries. The
tape can also be used to test whether pieces do fit together.
The End Result
At the end of the activity each student should be the proud owner of a reconstructed pot.
There will be gaps but this makes the point that no reconstruction can be perfect. This can
be used to talk about the ethics of archaeological reconstruction – should the breaks be left
visible or should they be made ‘good as new’?
It might even be possible to tell from the reconstructed pot where the hammer hit it, showing
how reconstruction can give us a better idea of the object’s history.
Extension Activity
To make this activity more challenging two objects could be smashed together (perhaps a
plant pot and a terracotta saucer) so that you need to sort out the fragments before you start
sticking. (History 6A, 7, 18)
Habitats (science 4B)
Arches (technology)
Construct a stone carrying railway (technology) (Science 2C, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2M)
Construct a crane suitable for lifting stone (technology) (Science 2C, 2E, 2F, 2G, 2M)
Lifting a weight – The Challenge
Your challenge is to construct a crane capable of holding up a five gram weight above the
ground for five minutes. You can use seven art straws and half a metre of sticky tape.
What methods of construction are most successful? What are least successful? Would it be
possible to devise a fair test to study how stable the structure is?
Extension activity
Construct a crane capable of holding a heavier weight above the ground, or for a longer
length of time. Construct a crane.
Whispers Game (English 2E)
Combe Down has many small alley-ways running between its streets. They have walls built
on either side. They are known locally as ‘drungs’. No one knows exactly where this word
came from but there some other words from around the west of England that mean similar
things like drane, drang, dragway, dreng, dring, drong and drung. They all seem to mean
roughly the same thing: a small passage or pathway leading between buildings, walls or
hedges. Perhaps the word drung started as something else and has changed over time as
people have repeated it.
Play a game of Whispers through the class.
Village Study
Use Google Earth and multimap.com to study the village. What buildings can be identified
by aerial photographs? Make a list of key features of Combe Down, both man-made and
natural. What features would be useful to mark on a map? (I.C.T. 2C, Science 3D)
Use symbols on a map to illustrate what use different areas of Combe Down are put to i.e.
churches/chapels, shops, houses, parks, playgrounds etc. (Keys) (Geography 1A, 1B, 2C)
Plan routes around village. These can be drawn on a map and written down for other children
to use. (Geography 1A, 2E) and Literacy (information text writing)
Find places on a grid map of village – (Geography Unit 25)
Field work – Walk the area taking photographs/sketching significant features and housing
types. Examine the facilities available in the village and its surroundings. Discuss why people
live in this locality. What are its advantages and disadvantages? (Geography 3A, 3B, Science
3D)
List possible opportunities for employment in the village. Recreation, Health and Education,
Retail. Are there enough jobs to support the local population? If not, where do the people go?
Discuss reasons for the village’s settlement in the past and land use. Why do people live here
now? (Geography 3E)
Using the fieldwork prepare a booklet or powerpoint presentation on Combe Down. Include
details of major features, photographs, sketches, a brief history of the settlement and its
present land use. (I.C.T. 3C, 4A, 5B, 6A)
Contour maps
Traffic Survey (Geography Unit 20, 25, I.C.T. 3C)
Traffic Survey
Site 1
Cars
Buses
Lorries
Other
Traffic Survey
Site 2
Cars
Buses
Lorries
Other
Traffic Survey
Site 3
Cars
Buses
Lorries
Other
Traffic Survey
Cars
Site 4
(Geography Unit 8, Unit 20, Unit 25)
Buses
Lorries
Other
Graffiti in Clay
The miners of Combe Down often carved messages or drew pictures into the stone of
their mine workings. Today these messages give us an insight into what these miners were
interested in hundreds of years ago. Using clay, or a similar modelling material, produce a
similar piece of graffiti that reflects your life and environment today. (Art and Design 6C)
Advertisement for Bath stone
It is the 1700s and you are a local businessman, Ralph Allen. You are keen to make use of
the Bath stone found on Combe Down to help rebuild Bath and use in other parts of Britain
and overseas. You need to make an advertisement to encourage people to invest in your
scheme. You can show them:
• What buildings you plan
• How you plan to move the stone
• Where the stone is mined
• What the stone looks like
• Why you want to rebuild Bath
• People who will help you (architects, stone masons etc.)
(English EN3 1A-E, 9C)
Key Stage 3
Ralph Allen’s stone prospectus – people for and against
Life of a Stone-miner
Use the books and other materials listed at the end of this pack to research the life of a
Combe Down stone miner. Write two versions, one factual, one fictional. How do the two
differ? Which was the easiest to write? Which is the more accurate? Why?
(K.S.3 History Unit 1)
Virtual Archaeological Dig
(K.S.3 History 2)
Cut the items from your virtual dig out (p 19) and put them in a bag. Pull out three. These are
the items that an archaeologist has dug up. You have to try and work out what the site on
Combe Down actually was. Now pull out another three items. Do they make you change your
mind? Pull out another three, and so on. As more items are found the archaeologist should
have more information on which to base their ideas. Bear in mind though that these items
don’t tell the whole story. All we can really do is guess.
The items below were found in the archaeological digs around Combe Down:
Samian (red) pottery made in France
Bronze bodkin or needle
Spindle whorls for spinning
Bone thread picker
Stone coffin
Pottery beaker made in Germany
Iron sheep shears
Bone bodkins and shuttles for cloth weaving
Iron Pincers
Iron wedge
Iron Keys
Iron Door latch lifter
Mortarium (food grinder) from Oxfordshire
Bone pins with gold tips
Ear wax cleaners
Pottery urn for cremated remains
Wooden and bone combs
Copper tweezers
Bone handles
Pottery beaker made in Nene Valley
(near Peterborough)
From the evidence you have collected decide what sort of people lived on Combe Down
2000 years ago. Were they well off? Who did they trade with? What jobs did they do? Was
the settlement on Combe Down a large one? What were Combe Down’s main industries?
(K.S. 3 History Unit 1)
Study the environmental quality in and around the
village of Combe Down.
(K.S. 3 Geography Unit 1, 3, 5, 9, 15)
Use of concepts around which to form the curriculum:
• Place: Where places are and why they are different, showing how social, economic and
environmental forces combine to form individual localities.
• Connectedness: How physical and human environments are related. How human actions
can impact on the physical environment.
• Scale: Understanding different scales from local to national to global.
• Process: How and why the word’s environments are changing.
• Skills: How to investigate the world around them – teamwork in the field, using maps,
analysing data, problem solving and using I.C.T.
Discuss what environmental issues affect the students (introduce concepts of environmental
interactions, place and scale)
Decide at least two hypotheses i.e. the area near the garage has the worse environmental
quality, or the biggest environmental quality issue in Combe Down will be litter.
Fieldwork
Pupils can complete a booklet of environmental quality surveys based on 6 locations within
Combe Down. These surveys might include traffic counts, litter counts, photographs or
sketches.
I.C.T.
Using I.C.T. students will present their field work using word, excel spreadsheets and graphs,
digital cameras, powerpoint, moviemaker etc. as appropriate. They can analyse, draw
conclusions and evaluate their fieldwork. (K.S. 3 I.C.T. Unit 1, 5, 10)
Presentation of ideas and peer evaluation.
Environmental Quality Surveys
Site 1
Scores (Circle)
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Site 2
Scores (Circle)
Site 3
Scores (Circle)
Site 4
Scores (Circle)
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Silent
1
2
3
4
5
Noisy
Clean
1
2
3
4
5
Dirty
Safe
1
2
3
4
5
Unsafe
Beautiful
1
2
3
4
5
Ugly
No cars
1
2
3
4
5
Many cars
No graffiti
1
2
3
4
5
Graffiti
Site 5
Scores (Circle)
Site 6
Scores (Circle)
Traffic Counts
Site
1
2
3
4
5
6
Number of vehicles in 2 minutes
Litter Counts
Type of Litter
Amount
Site 2
Type of Litter
Site 1
Amount
Site 3
Type of Litter
Amount
Type of Litter
Amount
Site 5
Type of Litter
Site 4
Amount
Site 6
Type of Litter
Amount
Peer Assessment sheets
Group
One thing you learnt
Two good points
One improvement
1
2
3
4
5
6
Study some of the buildings of Combe Down to produce a sculpture reflecting the local built
environment. (K.S. 3 Art and Design 7B)
Explore the landscape of Combe Down and its surroundings to produce a piece of 2d, or 3d,
artwork. (K.S. 3 Art and Design 7C)
For Further Information
Books
I Remember Tucking Mill by Stanley Wicks, Combe Down Heritage Society 2007
A History of the Byfield Mine by Dick Irving, Combe Down Heritage Society 2005
The Roman Villa at Combe Down by Dr. Malcolm Aylett, Combe Down Heritage Society 2005
Around Combe Down by Peter Addison, Millstream Books, 1998
The Last Fighting Tommy by Harry Patch, with Richard Van Emden, Bloomsbury Publishing
(2007) ISBN 0747591156
The Fashionable Stone by Kenneth Hudson, Adams and Dart 1971
Bath Stone – A Quarry History by J.W. Perkins, A.T. Brooks, A.E.M. Pearce, Kingsmead
Press, second edition 1983
Out of the Rock by Norman Bezzant, Heinemann 1980
Exploring Combe Down by Keith Dallimore, Millstream Books 1996
Memoirs of William Smith by John Philips (reprint of 1844 original with additional material by
Hugh Torrens), The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 2003
Fiction for adults
Stone Crow by Jenni Mills, HarperPerennial (2008) ISBN 0007247133
Websites and other media
Bath In Time over 14000 images of bath and its surroundings on-line
www.bathintime.co.uk
Combe Down Past and Present (CD ROM) – Then and now photographs of the village and
surrounding area available from the Combe Down Heritage Society (see below).
Trails
All Combe Down Heritage Society publications, as well as Around Combe Down and
Exploring Combe Down can be ordered from:
Rosemary Simmons, 12 Greendown Place, Combe Down, Bath BA2 5DD
Email [email protected]
Tel 01225 833301.
Museums
Museum of Bath At Work
Camden Works, Julian Road, Bath BA1 2RH
Tel. 01225 318 348
Website: www.bath-at-work.org.uk
How the stone was mined and its place within Bath’s economy
The Building of Bath Collection
The Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Vineyards, The Paragon, Bath BA1 5NA
Tel. 01225 333 895
Website: www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/index.php?id=4
The background to Bath’s redevelopment in the Georgian period. It has displays on Ralph
Allen, Prior Park and his stone railway.
No.1 The Royal Crescent
No. 1 The Royal Crescent, Bath BA1 2LR
Tel. 01225 428 126
Website: www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/index.php?id=3
The museum shows the life of a Georgian house. Useful for showing how Combe Down’s
stone was put to use.
Useful Contacts
Combe Down Heritage Society
website: www.combedownheritage.org.uk
Secretary: [email protected]
Bath Preservation Trust
Tel 01225 338 727
email: [email protected]

PDF - Combe Down Stone Mines

Transcription

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