Wath Old Quarry, Hovingham
History
Wath Old Quarry comprises a large quarry 0.7 km east of Hovingham in the Howardian Hills, and is one of several large working and non-working quarries that extend eastwards from Hovingham to Slingsby.
Whilst these various exposures were first generally described by Blake and Hudleston (1877), the earliest specific reference to Wath Old Quarry is that provided by Fox-Strangways (1892). Arkell (1933) and Wilson (1933, 1936) mentioned the quarry only briefly. Twombley (1965) undertook detailed palaeoenvironmental studies of the Oxfordian strata exposed in this area.
The locality figures prominently in Wright's (1972) stratigraphy of the Yorkshire Corallian. Wath Old Quarry is now disused, and a large new quarry, showing a more expanded succession than than seen in the old quarry, has been opened up half a kilometre to the ESE
Wath Old Quarry is of great importance in studies of the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Upper Jurassic of the Cleveland Basin. The locality shows the best, most accessible section anywhere in Yorkshire of the widespread discontinuity that occurs between the massivebedded Malton Oolite and the overlying reef carbonates of the Coral Rag.
The Visit
I have been to a quarry before, it was very wet & muddy and lead to a barrage of emails from a rather irate 'safety executive' who demanded I remove my pictures from my site (I didn't do what he asked). This place was very different, I suspect the 'Old Quarry' has been closed for quite a while as it has a lot of 'greenery' in it, in recent life it has been used as a clay pigeon shooting site and apparently a dumping ground for rather old cars. It also houses a barn rammed full of old paperwork from when the quarry was operational....Oh....and a tank!
The owner was also a lot more friendly here too and when she saw us wandering around, she came over, introduced herself and started to tell us about her horror film evening which she was putting on in the quarry and how we should not be concerned if we start to hear a lot of screaming!
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Visited with eplorer62
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