Monument record MDO43569 - Shillingstone Lime Works

Working lime works with early 20th century kilns ansd associated plant. The site was originally a small chalk pit with three small kilns, but these were replaced by a bank of five kilns between 1936-8, along with a hydration plant and a crusher installed in 1928. The site is visible as earthworks and structures on 1940s aerial photographs and was digitally plotted using these sources during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

The site as visible on 1940s aerial photographs comprises a group of buildings at the northern end, probably including lime kilns within these (RAF 1947). The chalk pit as recorded on the OS Epoch 1 map (OS c1880) is still just visible on the south side of one of the limekilns, but the area of extraction has extended southwards and eastwards from between 150m and 200m in length. A trackway runs through the site from the road to the north, running around the eastern edges of the extractive area. The site as visible on Environment Agency lidar imagery (EA 2018) suggest the extractive areas and trackways predominantly survive, but have since extended southwards again during the later 20th century. The buildings extant in 1947 are largely demolished on Google Earth imagery (GE 2022).

The features visible on 1940s aerial photographs were digitally plotted during the Mid Dorset Downs AIM project.

Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

Google Earth, 01-01-2022, Google Earth Imagery 2022 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21524.

Royal Air Force, 11-APR-1947, RAF/CPE/UK/1974 FS 2172 (Aerial Photograph). SDO21504.

Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1994, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1993, 33049 (Serial). SDO93.

Environment Agency, xx-xxx-2018, Environment Agency National Lidar Programme DTM 1M (Aerial Photograph). SDO21483.

<1> English Heritage, 1997, Monuments Protection Programme, Step 3 report: Lime, Cement and Plaster, Dorset 1 (Unpublished document). SDO17766.

‘Working lime works with early 20th century kilns and associated plant. The site was originally a small chalk pit with three small kilns but was taken over in 1924, the present company being formed in 1931. The old kilns were replaced by a bank of five new ones, bult between 1936 to 1938, along with a hydration plant and a crusher installed in 1928. The works produced 1,000 tonnes of hydrated lime in 1993, in addition to 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes of crushed chalk. The works are still operational today. There are substantial remains.’

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1465249 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 28 2025 1:18PM