Stone "Mining" / "Quarrying"
The soft oolitic limestone used extensively for building stone and typical
of Bath and many other Georgian towns was extracted extensively in the hills
around Bath. It was also worked in other areas of the Cotswold hills
including in South Gloucestershire.
Due to the nature of this material it is often better cut from sub-surface
works rather than opencast extraction and even though they are underground
these would have been known as "quarries" rather than mines.
Definition: "Mining" is the removal of minerals (in general these need to be processed
and it doesn't matter too much if it gets pulverised during mining)
"Quarrying" is the removal of stone (which usually needs to be kept in
decent sized bits e.g. for use in building). The men who worked the stone
were quarrymen, some of them just happened to work in the dark.
For further information use the links below:
Stone Quarries in South Gloucestershire:
Other information on Stone Quarrying in South Gloucestershire:
For more information see these external links:
