Old Quarry At Wroxham.

[Popeye]

A few days ago I had occasion to walk up the hill from the Castle Moorings on the River Bure at Wroxham to get some petrol (my wallet has now recovered from the shock!) and noticed what appears to be an old quarry dug out of the hillside next to the path.

It appears to be an old flint quarry as evidenced in the flints buried in the footpath and some large stones which appeared to be flints being pulled up from the bottom of the river by some local lads who were swimming there.

I have had a look around on the internet but can find no information about this quarry. Does anybody know anything about it? 

[Popeye]

I can only surmise that the flint was used to build houses in the traditional Norfolk way and in all possibility, the limestone or chalk that flints are found in was burned to make quicklime for the lime mortar that was used years ago. No doubt the Bure was an excellent means of transporting the heavy cargoes of flint around the Broadland area. 

[ChrisB]

I looked on the OS archive at the NLS but can't see anything.

[Vaughan]

This could also have been a marl pit, part of the very extensive clay workings, known as Little Switzerland because of of the big pine plantation that was also part of the Wroxham Hall estate.  Where it says Grovesend on the map, you can see some of the dykes where the wherries could go for a long way into the workings to load up. 

Marl was what they used for bricks, and would have been transported from there by wherry to brickworks all over the Broads area.

[LizG]

Can you locate it on Google maps - I can't see anything that visible?

[Popeye]

36 minutes ago, LizG said:

Can you locate it on Google maps - I can't see anything that visible?

No, there is nothing indicated on any maps which is rather strange. The whole area is wooded so it will not be visible from the air.

Thanks for the input of other forumites.

[floydraser]

Can you identify it on what3words?

[grendel]

12 hours ago, Popeye said:

No, there is nothing indicated on any maps which is rather strange. The whole area is wooded so it will not be visible from the air.

thats when you need to use the lidar maps - just as Timbo taught us, staithe circled in blue

I do see a big area that appears to be either a mound or dug out

https://www.lidarfinder.com/

[grendel]

I believe these are the marl pits Vaughan refers to

[marshman]

I think the area  they are talking about is at Caen Meadow - Little Switzerland is really a little further up and as Vaughan hints at, is an entirely different area and an extremely interesting area although my understanding of its primary use is as a fertiliser and a neutralising soil for acidic soils.

Difficult to get to as it is very private - another BIG landlord keeping erks out, but i have been in several times over the years and has a unique high /low bridge and plenty of evidence it was a very major operation in its day. Probably worthy of a whole new thread!!

[trambo]

Perhaps this may help. Scan of area dated 1837 - 1838 from a Ordnance Survey based Cassini Historical map.

There is a brick kiln located in the vicinity of the Bridge vets centre (behind Broads Tours) and an area known as Brick Field, the river side of Skinner Lane near the football club.

Fred

 

[MauriceMynah]

20 hours ago, floydraser said:

Can you identify it on what3words?

No, I don't think what3words was used in those days!

[Popeye]

On 18/07/2022 at 09:57, trambo said:

Perhaps this may help. Scan of area dated 1837 - 1838 from a Ordnance Survey based Cassini Historical map.

There is a brick kiln located in the vicinity of the Bridge vets centre (behind Broads Tours) and an area known as Brick Field, the river side of Skinner Lane near the football club.

Fred

 

I think that is the answer. Adjacent the quarry on this map there is an area marked "Brick Field". The flints I mentioned in the original post were probably incidental to the main purpose of obtaining marl but no doubt they were used for building too. 

[maysailor]

I think the are you are describing is what is known as Slot's Hole next to Malthouse lane (or hill) which is the track that goes up from the Castle Moorings

 

The following is an extract from the Wroxham history website https://wroxhamhistory.wordpress.com/

Which is a great site if you are interested in the history of Wroxham.

 

Since the 1950s photograph of the Caen Meadow appeared on the cover of the August 2016 edition of The Bridge magazine there has been some dispute about Nick Walmsley’s reference to “Slot’s Hole”, the more common name for Malthouse Hill – with local old-timers claiming it to be Sotts Hole or even Shotts Hole. Checking the 1871 census returns for Wroxham [transcribed by Rose French for the St Faiths District in August 2000] I found it listed against William Ives, 23, malster, and others who lived or worked there, as Sotts Hole