Asham Quarry, Nunney

Courtesy - Quarryfaces.org.uk

Asham Quarry was established by hauliers Bill and Ted Evemy of Chantry in 1942, originally as a joint venture with Dorset hauliers and quarry owners the Hine Brothers of Gillingham. Registered as the Asham Forestry Company Ltd, the name of the business was changed to the Asham Quarry Co. Ltd., a more accurate reflection of the purpose of the business. The plant installed at the quarry was bought second-hand, and included a 36x18 Parker crusher, rotary screen, and a pair of single cylinder Blackstone diesel engines.

The entrance to the quarry was in the valley bottom, and access was by a narrow lane (widened in the present century to create a bye pass to the nearby village of Chantry). The lane was too steep for heavily loaded older lorries, which had to be either towed to the top or go up backwards. To get round the problem the quarry company made its own tarmac coated zig-zag road on land bought from the Chantry estate, much of which still survives in the woods on the east side of the road.

The original workings were close to the road, but the poor quality of the stone, Lower Limestone Shales, necessitated a move further along the valley to the west into the Black Rock Limestone. In 1965 the quarry was bought by Hoveringham Ltd, which installed new plant. In 1973 Asham and its neighbour Westdown Quarry became a single unit operated by RH Roadstone Ltd, a joint venture of Hoveringham and Westdown’s owners Redland. The business then came under the ownership of Tarmac, which sold the site to Hanson in 1986.

No locality match on Mindat