Miscellaneous

Wilmcote Lime Quarries: misc_wlq220

Workers in Wilmcote quarry around the turn of the century. At their peak, production from these quarries exceeded 16.000 tons a year, all excavated by using hand tools. A contemporary account recorded in the Highways and Byways in Shakespeare’s Country’ described the workforce in 1841; ‘Just now a successful attempt was made to utilise the bad building stone for cement. This more than doubled the population. The place was in a sad state. On a Saturday the quarry hands would get in a cask of ale and sit down to finish it, thus damning their souls and ruining their families at the same time.’

Robert Ferris

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