Printed Sources
A search of the available printed sources on the history of the area may reveal useful information on quarries. These sources may be found in the local reference library, or in the record office. (In some areas, these have been merged together into local studies centres.) Actual quarry histories are rare, but in areas where quarrying was an important part of the local economy, general parish or county histories may include a section on the local quarries. A search of the catalogue, or enquiry of staff, should easily reveal whether such histories have been published for the area that you are interested in. Local historical and archaeological society journals, which mostly have indexes, should also be checked. The journal Tarmac Papers, from 1997 onwards, contains articles on the history and archaeology of individual quarries, products, sites and buildings. The Penguin Buildings of England series by Nikolaus Pevsner includes a section in each county volume on local building materials, which gives details (varying in length) of the local building stone. There is now a companion series on the buildings of Wales. More detail is given in Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Pattern of English Building(London: Faber, 1972).
Reports published by the minerals section of the local planning department can be informative on recent developments; see Planning Controls.
Transport
Transport was an important factor in the development of quarrying. Roads, canals and railways and tramways all carried quarry products at one time or another, and in coastal areas shipping was also important. Railways and canals especially are well served by published histories. These may well give information on the quarry that you are researching, such as the quantity of products carried, date at which branches or sidings were built to serve it, etc.
Newspapers
Local newspapers were published from the late eighteenth century, and became common from the 1850s. They may be found in local record offices and libraries, often on microfilm. They can contain useful information on quarries, including reports of developments in the local industry. Accidents are often reported in great detail, and the descriptions may shed light on working practices. Advertisements for the sale of quarries generally give details of kilns, machinery, etc. In some areas, indexes to local newspapers have been compiled, but usually, using newspapers involves searching them systematically, page by page.
Trade Journals
The trade journals of the industry, such as the Quarry Managers’ Journal (now Quarry Management), The Quarry, Cement, Lime & Gravel, The Stone Trades Journal (now Stone Industries), and Mine & Quarry, contain articles on individual quarries, and current equipment and working practices. Unfortunately, there are no cumulative indexes to these, but research in other printed sources may provide references that can be followed up. The Quarry Management website does however have a searchable archive (archive). The British Geological Survey online catalogue, GEOLIB, provides references to articles in geological publications, and in recent trade journals. Only major libraries are likely to have good runs of trade journals, but the National Stone Centre has a good collection.
Directories
Trade directories of rural Britain were published from the 1820s onwards. The earlier ones grouped parishes with the nearest town, but eventually firms such as Kelly’s produced directories including every village of any size. Quarry operators are listed, and entries relating to them can be useful in helping to establish when a particular company started work, and in showing how many firms were active at any one time. Some caution is necessary, as the earlier ones especially are not always comprehensive.
The annual List of Quarries began to appear in 1897, published by the government following the Quarries Act 1896. The Directory of Quarries and Pits has been produced by the Quarry Managers’ Journal from 1927 at intervals of a few years. It provides both an alphabetical list arranged by mineral extracted, and a geographical list by counties. Since 1984 the British Geographical Survey has published, again at intervals, the very detailed Directory of Mines and Quarries, which also provides various listings in alphabetical order and by counties, and gives each operator’s location, including National Grid References.
Production statistics for individual quarries, rather than whole areas, are not easily available. The annual Mineral Statistics of the United Kingdom, which was published for metalliferous mines from 1853, published a volume on clay works and quarries for the single year 1858, but this was not repeated. The annual reports of the Inspectors of Mines and Quarries and the modern UK Mineral Statistics give information on an area basis only.