Batts Combe quarry history

Quarrying operations at Batts Combe, Cheddar probably began about 1890 with open lime kilns, although there was probably small scale quarrying and lime burning for many years prior to this.

The present operations can be traced back to around 1924 or 1926 when two local men, Charles Bernard Butcher and Frederick Ford formed the Batts Combe Quarry Co. Butcher, a local entrepreneur had previously worked a quarry at Chipping Sodbury in Gloucestershire. The company was not involved in the major rationalisation of the industry in 1934 but was purchased the following year by Thomas Roberts. The quarry was re-equipped in the 1950s to supply an increasing demand for road and concrete aggregate. In 1959, Batts Coombe Quarry was incorporated into Roads Reconstruction (1934) Ltd. when owner, John Roberts took over the company.

Following the merger of Roads Reconstruction and Amy Roadstone Corporation in 1967, their quarry operations were reappraised. The stone at Batts Combe, mostly the Burrington Oolite, had long been recognised for its high purity (approaching 99% calcium carbonate) with reserves amounting to 50 million tonnes. This enabled the company to successfully bid for a contract to supply high purity limestone to British Steel in South Wales to be used as a flux in the steel industry.

In 1974, the Krauss Maffei rotary lime kiln was commissioned. This was capable of producing 180 000 tonnes of lime per year, then one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The kiln, fired by liquid butane (a 'clean gas') heats the limestone up to 1500ºC, converting it from calcium carbonate to lime (calcium oxide) and carbon dioxide. Full production started in 1976 when the Llanwern steel plant came on stream.

The lime kiln was sold to Singleton Birch in 2012 and has since been shut down due to a lack of market in the British steel industry.

Current production from the quarry is about 1 million tonnes annually for aggregates. In addition to aggregate making, this is also one of the few sites processing material for 'industrial' uses such as agriculture, animal feeds and industrial fillers.

Information courtesy https://www.bgs.ac.uk