Monument record MDO30751 - Possible medieval marble quarries, Talbots Wood, Langton Matravers

A group of quarries are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs at Talbot's Wood. They are considered possibly to be medieval marble quarries.

Probable Mediaeval quarries between Downshay Farm and Wilkswood Farm, North-East of Langton Matravers. At the East end of the site is a sub-circular area of quarrying earthworks with faces and heaps of stone visible, relating to Mediaeval marble quarrying. Immediately South of Wilkswood Farm there is an area of large sub-circular depressions circa 4.0-5.0m in diameter and up to circa 2.0m deep,which are probably shaft mounds or pits. To the West of these is a long linear spread of quarrying earthworks formed by many shallow sub-circular or linear depressions set within a generally uneven ground surface. There also appear to be collapsed stone walls, platforms and small piles of quarried stone. Generally the earthworks appear to become less dense as one moves from East to West as the workings approach Downshay Farm. The works appear to be free of later disturbance. At Cants Lane Quarry, SY99817927, are concrete foundations and boiler waste, probably from steam powered stone saws, and a rare iron bell with two internal seats, used to lower quarrymen into the workings. <1>

A group of quarries are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs at Talbot's Wood, Langton Matravers <2>. They have been previously been considered to be medieval marble quarries by the NMR <4>. The features are much levelled on the most recent Google Earth imagery and were digitally plotted during the Wild Purbeck Mapping Project.

<1> English Heritage, 2000, Monument Protection Programme Quarrying IndustryStep 3.2 Additional Site Assessments
Lancashire University Archaeological Unit,. (Serial). SDO17683.

<2> Royal Air Force, 20-MAR-1945, RAF 106G/LA/187 4005-6 (Aerial Photograph). SDO13391.

<3> Papworth M, 1994, Eastington, Acton, Westwood, Wilkswood, New Barn, Corfe Castle Estate, Wessex Region, 67 (Unpublished document). SWX1388.

A Purbeck Marble Mortarium was found in the disused quarries at Talbot Wood by Trevor Haysom. It is on display in the Coach House Museum, Langton Matravers. Objects like these used to grind food or prepare and mix mortar and it may have been made here from stone taken from the quarries (see 112,364).

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1466202 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Apr 16 2023 8:23AM