In 1810, quarrying of Bath Stone begins at Traveller's Rest or Woodman's Quarry, which later becomes part of Hartham Park Underground Quarry. Bath Stone Firms Ltd, formed in 1887, brought together seven Bath Stone quarries, which included Hartham Park. Extraction of bath stone block continued in some form right up to the start of the second world war until Hartham Park was requisitioned by Admiralty to store ammunition. It was renamed Royal Navy Armament Depot Pickwick and stored ammunition including depth charges, Bofor Shells and mines. Around 1950 the government released some of the quarries and mining resumes. In 1997 extraction recommences at Hartham Park and the workings are accessed through a new heading from the foot of the Pickwick slope shaft.

image: Hartham Park stacking yard circa 1810

Bath Stone was mined by the room and pillar method where chambers were dug out leaving huge pillars holding up the roof. Pick axes and hand-held saws were the tools of trade rather than the powerful machinery we have access to today.

In the day, miners were paid by the cubic foot and tally marks, in carbide, are still found on the stone pillars. The ganger would have totalled the blocks before they were dispatched to the surface. Whilst today we call it a mine, the correct term is underground quarry.

image: underground quarrymen extracting Bath stone

The team recently discovered old quarry workings, circa 1810 - 1822. It was like opening a window to the past with graffiti on the walls, from a detailed pencil streetscape of Bath to tags and names of families', some of which are still local, and discarded quarry tools left in situ.
The walls of the exhausted chamber show the historical pick marks with evidence of the cuts left by hand-held saws for block extraction and dark burn marks from carbide/candle smoke. There is an old shaft, decommissioned years ago, and the original entrance now covered by a residential garden high above. A secret underground world from bygone days.

‍