An Abandoned Stone Quarry on Ayton Bank

Someone once told me, or perhaps I read it somewhere, that there were twelve quarries along the edge of the escarpment between Roseberry Topping and Easby Moor, including the one on the summit itself. Do not expect a citation; it is just one of those pointless facts that have lodged themselves in my brain, refusing to make way for more useful information—such as what I was doing last weekend. But if you are determined to verify this sweeping statement, old maps will oblige.

These quarries extracted Jurassic estuarine sandstone from the upper layers of the moors. It was of excellent quality and widely used for building—houses, farmsteads, churches, bridges, and the endless dry-stone walls that scar the landscape.

The Cockshaw Quarry at Gribdale Gate was possibly the most notable and the last to be worked. It provided a thick bed of stone, ideal for ashlar blocks, and was the primary building material for Great Ayton until brickworks sprung up nearby. St Mary’s Church in Nunthorpe also used its stone. Dating quarry activity is not straightforward, but this one, captured in the photograph on Ayton Bank, only made its debut on the 1915 Ordnance Survey map.

The usual method of transporting stone was by sledging downhill—essentially letting gravity do the work. However, the same Ordnance Survey map shows a track leading from the top of the quarry towards Gribdale Gate. LIDAR scans suggest remnants of this route still exist. I must admit I didn’t notice anything as I walked across—but then I wasn’t looking. On the flat moorland above this quarry (and the one next to it), there are several abandoned, crudely dressed stone blocks, presumably just abandoned when work ceased.

What caught my attention, though, was that small retaining wall of rough rubble stones. It appears to serve no particular function, except to ‘retain’ a narrow ridge—too narrow, one would think, for a cart, unless erosion has done its worst. A handbarrow, perhaps? But that is merely speculation, which, like most things concerning these old quarries, is all we really have.