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Report - - Hornton Masonry Company, nr. Banbury January 2025 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Hornton Masonry Company, nr. Banbury January 2025

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mookster

I am friends with the smooth Mars Bar man
Regular User
After seeing @Fuzzball 's excellent post on this last year, I realised it was fairly local to me hiding in plain sight, so put it down as somewhere to go and see when I had the chance. Recently I had a free day so me and @CookieRaider went off to do some nice low stress stuff to ease us into the year, which is just what the doctor ordered.

The company was formed to quarry the Hornton stone, a dark reddish stone which is rather lovely and almost ubiquitous around the local area. Different to the yellow-hued Cotswold stone, it has a lovely warm feel to it and appears very 'old England'. There isn't a great deal of history to be found about this specific site, however the small quarry it sits in dates back to the 19th Century, and with the largest building on site being composed of one massive Nissen hut, potentially sourced from nearby RAF Shenington, it would appear to have had it's beginnings post-war. The works closed in 2008 and they seemingly moved to a new premises nearby, I'm very surprised it hasn't been developed yet, considering it must be a desirable plot of land - the grounds seem to be kept trimmed back in order to show prospective developers around but that's it.

I really enjoyed wandering around here, it's a bit empty and bare but the decay, the lines and the general feel of the place was really nice. It was one of those places that was really easy to photograph, with plenty of stuff to keep you occupied. The offices have been thoroughly ruined over the years but are home to all sorts of old paperwork and other stuff, in one room there was a box containing a load of unusual etched brass plates with designs for stonework, gravestones and other stuff on them which was very cool.

All in all not a bad way to start a year where I doubt I'll be getting out too much the way things are going.

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Heading outside, there are numerous little outbuildings including one which I assume was the worker's break room.

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A really tumble-down wooden storage shed, with some old window frames and wheels inside.

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The workshop, with a great little forge and that wonderful smell of old ingrained oil.

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Moving across to the offices to finish off.

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Thanks for looking :)
 

Fuzzball

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Great to the see the place getting some love, glad my post piqued interest and thanks. it's a bite-sized, under-the-radar, surprisingly atmospheric snack isn't it! Especially as there's bog in the area, it's refreshing that there's such a chill derp with character and stuff left behind. It also looks awesome in fog as well as during golden hour.

I haven't been in the workshops really so it's good to see more of them and clear wide shots. The offices are yielding some interesting nuggets I see.
Love the promo materials and the historic images! - They look like they're faded colour photos? They're not mounted on glass are they? Would be awesome if they were Autochromes, but highly doubt it, they look too sharp image wise.

I visited over Christmas and found a magazine in one of the offices with a feature on the company from 1999 and the piece contained some vintage photos which I snapped and 'shopped.
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screenone

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Remember the Hornton stone lorries every day when I lived in Banbury , nice few memories come back with this set of
Photos. Thanks
 
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