Box Freestone Quarry is the largest of the bathstone quarries its name is a combination of its location beneath Box hill and the type of stone it produced. a free stone is one which can be worked with a chisel to produce architectural moldings and tracery. The fine lime stone produced in the Bath area is prime example of a freestone. Quarrying on Box hill dates back to medieval times when the stone was extracted from pits in the hillside where the stone reached the surface. Later quarrying would take place around vertical shafts and it is this method of mining which lead to the construction of one of Box Freestone's most spectacular features, The Cathedral which was quarried via vertical shaft between 1830 and 1850.
The last section of the quarry to be worked was Cliftworks quarry in the northern district which closed in 1969, These working branched off a single long passage which open out of the hillside at Cliftworks Entrance over looking the A4. The passages in the northern district still retain the largest number of artifacts including number of complete cranes, Stone saws and an intact crab winch. Throughout the Cliftworks passages the floor is uneven with the pits left behind by the rotten sleepers which once supported the rail network in this part of the quarry, Clift works was the most modern part of the quarry with stone hauled out by a small locomotive, a water tank near Cliftworks entrance was built to service the engine and the passage roofs are still stained by the locomotives exhaust.
