Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Former gravel workings now a public lake and industrial site.

Monument Types

• GRAVEL PIT (Post Medieval to Modern - 1860 AD? to 1970 AD? (between))

Full description

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Gravel was being extracted from one small pit, only 10 m,. Square at Stonar before 1894. A further disused larger pit measuring 100 m. by 15 m. appears on the first edition of the OS maps.

During WW1 and WW2 the demand for gravel led to a massive increase in extraction at Stonar and the site expanded exponentially. Despite the flooding of the early 1950s when the River Stour burst its banks extraction continued but by the early 1960s the supply of fine gravel had been exhausted and extraction slowed down. However extraction of the larger gravel continued for use by the Staffordshire potteries until the 1970s when the gravel workings were closed.

During the hundred or so years of its working life the pit went from a small concern to covering an area 1200 m. by 300 m. The area covered much of the medieval town of Stonar which was drowned by the sea in 1345-6. The gravel workings are now divided in two; the northern third being let over to an industrial complex and the remainder, flooded in the 1950s, provides a vivid representation of the large scale of the extraction that took place in the C19 and C20.

The mineral railway built to transport the massive volumes of gravel required by the main contractor for the construction of the naval harbour at Dover in 1898 was used for storage of locomotives after WW2 but the floods of the 1950s meant that this was discontinued. It is however rumoured that some of the stored locomotives were lost underwater and never recovered together with quarrying plant.

The area which once was the quarry has been recolonised by flora and fauna and has become an attractive lake and a valued asset for the local population for the wildlife and the scenery. A public footpath runs alongside the lake. However, whilst the lake provides attractive leisure facilities it has conversely destroyed any remaining structures or features and it is therefore unlikely that any of the historic features of the extraction site survives. (1)

<1> Dover District Council, 2013, Dover District Heritage Strategy (Bibliographic reference). SKE31372.

Sources and further reading