LUNCHTIME TALK

Combe Down - more than Stone Mines

Talk chaired by Rob Randall

Rosemary Simmons

Chair of the Combe Down Heritage Society

10 February 2005

The Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project has required research to establish the extent of the underground quarries (Firs Mine) and this sparked off a wider interest in development of the whole village.

The Combe Down Heritage Group published the Combe Down Heritage Trail in 2002, reprinted in 2004 and showed an exhibition about the village in 2002 and 2004. In October 2004 the group formed the Combe Down Heritage Society; it now has over 100 members and has held its first public lecture.

The story of Ralph Allen's stone mines in Combe Down is well known but what happened after his death? A number of quarry masters continued to work underground but also developed extensive surface quarrying further west (Byfield Mine) one of these being Samuel Nowell. It was his son, Phillip Nowell, who became the most important entrepreneur to rival Ralph Allen, supplying Combe Down stone to architects John Nash and Jeffrey Wyatt. Buildings such as the garden front of Buckingham Palace, All Soul's, Langham Place in London used his stone. Working with Wyatt, later to become Sir Jeffrey Wyattville, Nowell supplied stone for: extensions at Longleat, rebuilding the round tower at Windsor Castle, the cladding of Apsley House, Stratford Saye, Duke of York's Column and many other buildings. The opening of the Kennet & Avon Canal in 1810 made the transport of stone to London much easier; Nowell had his own Grosvenor Wharf near what is now Victoria Station. Combe Down stone was almost exhausted by the time Brunel drove Box Tunnel and discovered another huge easily transportable deposit of Bath Stone.

Ever since Ralph Allen's death in 1764 Combe Down was gradually gentrified and was known as a health resort for its clean air. By the 1850s it had many fine villas, schools and places of worship and it was later incorporated into the City of Bath, and thus is part of the World Heritage Site.

Two new developments are exciting: a feasibility study is to be undertaken to see if a stone mines interpretive centre would be viable on Combe Down and which would incorporate some underground access. William Smith's quarry, Kingham Quarry is being considered as a possible publicly accessible tribute to William Smith to celebrate his bicentenary. The Combe Down Heritage Society is actively involved in these studies as well as our own projects to record the buildings, drungs, historic public realm and to publish research on the History of the Byfield Mine and the Roman Villa this year.

Rosemary Simmons