Archives
What are archives?
Archives are records which are worth keeping permanently because of the information that they contain. They may be created by an individual, or by a company. Some archives are unique documents such as handwritten minute books, but many are items such as typewritten letters, printed reports, maps and plans, photographs and ciné film, which contain information on quarry history. Only a tiny percentage of the records created every day are worth keeping as archives. They do not have to be old to be of value; items from the recent past can also be worth keeping.
What use are archives?
Today there is a great interest in the past — in the history of a place or building, the landscape, or family history. Quarrying is an industry that has played an important part in our history. Quarries have supplied stone for great buildings and civil engineering projects, and for the construction of roads and railways. They have been a vital source of raw materials for industry from the Industrial Revolution onwards. Many people are interested in the history of their family, and find that their ancestors once worked in a quarry.
From a practical point of view, there is a demand for information on the location of old mines and quarries.
Quarry archives are a source of information on all these aspects of the industry. Advice on how to use archives for research is given below under Sources for the History of Quarrying.
Who keeps archives?
Archives are kept by the network of record offices throughout the United Kingdom, funded by local authorities and others. Tarmac has its own archive, in which records of the company are preserved. Record offices catalogue the archives in their care, and make them available to the general public for research.
If you know of the existence of interesting records, an archivist would be glad to advise you on what is worth keeping as archives. Record offices accept archives for permanent preservation either as a gift or on loan. There is no charge for these services.
The address of your local record office can be found in the phone book under the entry for your local authority. The Historical Manuscripts Commission maintains ARCHON, a directory of archive repositories in the UK and overseas, on the Internet. It can be searched by name, place or county.
Sources for the History of Quarrying
There are various levels at which one can write the history of a quarry, ranging from a one-page outline of the history of a single quarry, to a detailed study of the development of a major quarrying region. For the former, a few visits to a local record office or library to check likely printed sources, and obtain copies of early Ordnance Survey maps, and perhaps photographs, will be enough. For the latter, use of most or all of the sources listed below may be necessary. Further sources may suggest themselves, particularly if you wish to research the uses to which the quarry products were put.
There is a growing number of studies of individual quarrying areas, but no comprehensive bibliography of the industry has yet appeared. Two books by Peter Stanier, Quarries and Quarrying (Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, 1985 and later editions), and Quarries of England and Wales: An Historic Photographic Record (Truro: Twelveheads Press, 1995), provide brief introductions to the industry, and include short bibliographies. On industrial archaeology, Peter Stanier, Stone Quarry Landscapes: The Archaeology of Quarrying in England (Stroud: Tempus, 2000), provides a general introduction and a series of detailed case studies. For a comprehensive description of older quarrying methods, there is A Greenwell and J V Elsden, Practical Stone Quarrying (London: Crosby, Lockwood & Son, 1913).
The following pages describe the more important sources for the history of the quarrying industry. Contact details, with e-mail and website addresses, are given where appropriate.