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.
Heading outside, there are numerous little outbuildings including one which I assume was the worker's break room.
A really tumble-down wooden storage shed, with some old window frames and wheels inside.
The workshop, with a great little forge and that wonderful smell of old ingrained oil.
Moving across to the offices to finish off.
Thanks for looking
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.
Heading outside, there are numerous little outbuildings including one which I assume was the worker's break room.
A really tumble-down wooden storage shed, with some old window frames and wheels inside.
The workshop, with a great little forge and that wonderful smell of old ingrained oil.
Moving across to the offices to finish off.
Thanks for looking
