WITH everyone being confined to their local areas for the past months, many have taken the opportunity to explore - and in doing so are uncovering some of Gwent’s forgotten history.
Nestled on the way to Machen Mountain is an abandoned quarry with an interesting history.
While taking a walk up through Ochrwyth, just past Castle Farm, a track takes you past a small brick structure and up to some ruins of old brick buildings, with foundations attached.
A short walk further up – under a fallen tree – leads to the magnificent site of the old Dolomite quarry.
The quarry – known as Dolomite due to the type of material that was found at the quarry, used in line furnaces – was found in an extraordinary way.
In 1941, a young girl called Patsy Male – the daughter of Welsh rugby international full-back and Pontymister Grammar School teacher Ossie Male – had fallen a “considerable distance over a quarry-like face on the Pontymister side of Machen Mountain” according to a report in the South Wales Argus in 1942.
Officers at Risca Police Station were alerted and Special Constable Tom Weatherall headed up the mountain to rescue Miss Male. Once she was safely rescued – she was not badly hurt – Mr Weatherall noticed the stone in the quarry.
Who was Tom Weatherall?
Mr Weatherall had a considerable knowledge of mining spanning three decades. Born in 1892 in Blaina, he went down the pit at the age of 13. He went to evening classes at Crumlin School of Mines before qualifying as a mining engineer at Swansea Technical College.
He moved to India in the early 1920s where he worked as a colliery manager. He sank two of the deepest mine shafts in India and did work into the prevention of dust disease in miners with Calcutta University – this work was recognised by the Indian Mining Institute.
He returned from India at the age of 48 at the start of the Second World War. Originally expecting to retire, he became a special constable with the police force as he was too old for military service.
What happened after he rescued the girl?
Speaking to the Argus after his discovery of the Dolomite Quarry, Mr Weatherall said: “Tests which I carried out proved that there was dolomite there – vast quantities of it, practically pure.
“His report proved I was correct in my tests,” Mr Weatherall said after inviting Monmouthshire County Analyst George Hogan to carry out more tests.
Mr Weatherall then set up a company – Risca Dolomite Company Ltd – with two other businessmen to mine the dolomite and they would produce around 250 tonnes a week and was then sent to steelworks – namely Pontymister Steelworks at the bottom of the mountain, but also to Port Talbot when the steelworks in Pontymister closed for a period of time.
In 1945, the company went into voluntary liquidation. The steelworks owners took over the running of the quarry – which then closed in the late 1950s.
What has happened at the site since?
According to the National Museum of Wales’ mineral database, in 1968 magnesite was identified at the quarry as “a component of a greyish-green crust consisting mainly of mixed smithsonite, hydrozincite, calcite and baryte.
“This appears to be an unusual example of supergene magnesite: however no more material of this nature has since been recorded despite much research into the mineralogy of the area.”
It is unknown when the buildings were demolished – or even how they were demolished, but it was after the 1960s as a number of people recall playing in the buildings following work stopping and the site seemingly being abandoned – all that remains of the office buildings are a few brick and stone foundations and what looks like the wall of a wooden hut. There are a large number of overgrown weeds and brambles and fallen trees and the site has been known as a hotspot for fly-tipping.
The only fully intact structure is the watchman's hut which was used as a shelter for people when blasts were about to go off in the quarry.
The quarry itself seems to be a reservoir now as it is full of water. There are a number of Birdsfoot trefoil and wild thyme plants growing in the area according to Gwent Mothing. There are bumblebees, Small Heath butterflies and large and small White and Speckled Wood butterflies. There have also been four species of moths noted in the area – Nettle-tap, Crambus pratella, Chrysoteuchia culmella and Pyruasta cingulate.
It is also said that the quarry was previously mined in Roman times as in Italy there are scroll records which had ‘Ochrwyth and Risca spelt in the Roman way. The records were seen by Keith Griffiths, who grew up in Ochrwyth, who was at a conference and spoke of export of lead and other minerals back to Rome from Ochrwyth.
The story was retold by his son Richard. The scrolls were stored behind sealed wooden doors hinged onto compartments cut into stone walls. Permission had to be sought to open it and it looked to Mr Richards as if they had not been opened in hundreds of years.
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