Aislaby Quarry is a

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

quarry in the village of Aislaby, near to

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. The quarry produces sandstone which has been exported through Whitby to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

History

The quarry workings at Aislaby are west of Whitby, and were known to have been in existence by the 11th century, as the majority of Whitby Abbey was constructed of stone quarried from the area. The West and East Piers at Whitby were faced with blocks of Aislaby stone. Besides being used for building purposes, some of the stone from Aislaby was used in decorative work such as crosses used in churches. Examples of this stone worked decoratively have been found in churches the area including

Whitby Abbey Whitby Abbey was a 7th-century Christian monastery that later became a Benedictine abbey. The abbey church was situated overlooking the North Sea on the East Cliff above Whitby in North Yorkshire, England, a centre of the medieval Northumbrian ...

Lythe Lythe is a small village and large civil parish, in North Yorkshire, England, situated near Whitby within the North York Moors National Park. The name of the village derives from Old Norse and means hill or slope. It was in the old North Rid ...

Church of St Mary, Lastingham The Church of St Mary, Lastingham, is the Anglican parish church for the village of Lastingham in North Yorkshire, England. The parish is part of Ryedale and is located north of Kirkbymoorside, west of Pickering and north east from York. The ...

, and

Hovingham Hovingham is a large village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the edge of the Howardian Hills and about south of Kirkbymoorside. History The name 'Hovingham' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appe ...

. The

Easby Cross The Easby Cross is an Anglo-Saxon sandstone standing cross from 800–820, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It originally came from Easby near Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, where a plaster replica ...

, which dates to the early 9th century, has been matched to the same "medium-grained deltaic sandstone traditionally produced in the Aislaby quarries of Eskdale, near Whitby". It is theorised that pack horses took sections of the stone west from Aislaby to the valley of the

River Swale The River Swale in Yorkshire, England, is a major tributary of the River Ure, which becomes the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse, that empties into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary. The river gives its name to Swaledale, the valley throu ...

, but it is unknown who paid for the cross. In May 2002, the quarry was re-opened to allow new stone to be quarried to provide repairs for structures which used Aislaby Stone in the first place, such as the east pier at Scarborough. It was again reopened in the 2010s, specifically to supply stone for a renovation programme on the East and West Piers at Whitby. The quarry was registered in 2020 as Eskdale stone, working sandstone from the Saltwick and Cloughton formations of Jurassic sandstone.

Notable structures

The structures listed below were built with stone quarried at Aislaby (not all structures are entirely of Aislaby stone); *Admiralty Pier,

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

* The new Library, Cambridge University * St Margaret's Church, Aislaby *

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

*Grinkle Park, Easington *

Guisborough Priory Gisborough Priory is a ruined Augustinian priory in Guisborough in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1119 as the Priory of St Mary by the Norman feudal magnate Robert de Brus, an ancestor of the Sc ...

Houghton Hall Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It was commissioned by the '' de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in 1722, ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, the stone was transported to King's Lynn from Whitby by sea *

London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...

Ramsgate Pier Ramsgate is a seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastlin ...

* St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale (assumed) *

Scarborough North Pier Scarborough North Pier (1868-1905) was a steamer and promenade pier in North Bay, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. Planning and construction Abortive plans In 1862 the Scarborough Pier and Improvement Company led by engineer Josia ...

*Strand Bridge (original Waterloo Bridge) *

* Whitby East Pier * Whitby West Pier * Whitby Town Hall

References

Sources

* * * {{Quarries in North Yorkshire Quarries in North Yorkshire Whitby Aislaby, Scarborough