Long Grass Quarry
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| Coordinates | 50°39′36″N 4°45′50″W / 50.660°N 4.764°W |
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Long Grass Quarry (also known as Cliff Quarry[1]) is a small, disused slate quarry between Tintagel and Trebarwith on the north coast of Cornwall, South West England, which was worked up until 1937. It was the last of the slate quarries on this stretch of coast to be abandoned.
The quarry site occupies the stretch of coastline immediately north west of the Tintagel youth hostel and just to the south of the abandoned Gillow Slate Quarry. The quarry workings extend for around 70m in length and reach a height of 59m.
Quarrying
Men would use flights of wooden ladders to climb down the sheer rock face to the left of a small "box cave" that had been tunnelled at the foot of the cliff. Quarrying here was hazardous: in 1886, three workers lost their lives when the rock they were drilling fell into the sea and a quarryman named Reuben Tinney died in 1936 shortly before the quarry closed.[2]
Industrial remains
The youth hostel building is associated with nearby Lambshouse Quarry where it served as offices, powerhouse and smithy. The remains of a strip of ten small buildings can still be seen; these were possibly sheds where slate was dressed.[3] There are possibly ruins of some splitting sheds at the extreme south of the quarry which were destroyed as the quarry expanded some time after 1907. Remains of iron handrails, chains and rusty stanchions in the cliff face are evidence of aids for the men climbing down the cliffs on ladders.[2]
Stone
The quarry provided a source of Upper Devonian slate and Lower Carboniferous slates of a greyish green colour used predominantly for roofing. Slate from inside the box cave provided exceptionally good quality slate.[3]
