Boscastle Slate Quarries are a series of disused coastal quarries between Willapark and

Trevalga Trevalga () is a coastal civil parishes in England, civil parish and hamlet in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is bounded on the north by the Celtic Sea, on the southeast by Forrabury and Minster parish and on the west by Ti ...

on the north coast of

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The quarries

*California Quarry *Welltown Quarry *Grower Quarry *Boscastle Quarry

California Quarry

The quarry is cut into the cliffs just south of Willapark. It is also known as Swanser Quarry. The quarry can be identified by a stone strongpoint overhanging the cliff. On this will have stood a wooden platform supporting a horse-operated whim which hoisted blocks to the top of the cliff. Various ruined buildings can be found on the cliff top including shelters and splitting sheds where thin roofing slates were produced. Old photographs show a small railway with its iron wagons, though this has since disappeared.

Welltown Quarry

The quarry cuts a right angle into the cliffs just north of the inlet known as Grower Gut.

Grower Quarry

The quarry hacks a deep notch into the cliffs forming an inlet known as Grower Gut. It is also called Growa Quarry. Just offshore is Grower Rock which gives the quarry its name.

Boscastle Quarry

The quarry cuts into the cliffs just north of Trevalga. A well preserved stone horse whim can be seen on the cliffs above the quarry from the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

The stone

In Boscastle,

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slates sit on top of Upper Devonian. The boundary between the two is at Gower Quarry. The most valuable slates were blue and green and were found at the base of the cliffs. The stone forms part of what is known as the Barras Nose formation.

Quarrying

Removing rock from the quarry was a hazardous occupation. Men were lowered down the cliffs by a system of cables.Booklet- The National Trust Coast of Cornwall #3: Boscastle, Brian Le Messurier, National Trust, 2003 The men working these quarries were in constant danger, with weather their worst enemy. If stormy or frosty weather stopped them working they did not get paid.

Trilobites

During 1961, California Quarry was extensively researched and was found to be rich in fossils. In particular, two species of

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

were found: '' Cyrtosymbole cf. drewerensis'' and ''Cyrtosymbole (Waribole) sp''. Below the quarry and only exposed in fallen blocks on the foreshore, a third trilobite species can be found – ''Cyrtosymbole verneuill''.

In Art and Literature

In ''Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book'', 1833,

Thomas Allom Thomas Allom (13 March 1804 – 21 October 1872) was an English architect, artist, and topographical view, topographical illustrator. He was a founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He designed many bui ...

's picture of ''Boscastle Waterfall and Quarry'' (above) is accompanied by a poetical illustration by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

, in which she reflects on the noble buildings that are able to be created from the products of the quarries.

References

{{Reflist Quarries in Cornwall Boscastle