Gurney Slade quarry, is a limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 near Gurney Slade between Binegar

Binegar

Binegar is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is located on the A37, east of Wells, between Shepton Mallet and Chilcompton. Its population in 2001 was 328.-History:...

 and Holcombe

Holcombe, Somerset

Holcombe is a small village and civil parish in the Mendip local government district of Somerset, England. The parish contains the hamlets of Barlake and Edford...

, on the Mendip Hills

Mendip Hills

The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Gurney Slade quarry exhibits pale to very dark grey Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...

 Limestone overlain by red and purple-coloured Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

 breccias

Breccia

Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, that can be either similar to or different from the composition of the fragments....

 and marls

Marl

Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and aragonite. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay...

 with a small faulted block of overlying Lower Jurassic breccias forming an angular unconformity

Unconformity

An unconformity is a buried erosion surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval of time before deposition of the younger, but the term is used to describe...

 with the Carboniferous Limestone. There is abundant vertical sediment infilled fissures and joints (Neptunian Dykes). The rocks contain varying amounts of calcite mineralization, and there is common fossil material associated with the Carboniferous and Jurassic limestones. The limestone within the quarry dips to the south-east at around 30°.

Work began at the quarry in the mid 18th century and grew after it was taken over by F Flower and Sons in 1928 producing stone for lime-burning. The quarry closed in 1947 and was reopened in 1951 by John Yeoman of Foster Yeoman

Foster Yeoman

Foster Yeoman Limited, based in the United Kingdom, is one of Europe's largest quarrying and asphalt companies, owned by Swiss construction materials conglomerate Holcim.-Company history:...

. The next owner was City Sand and Gravel Co. and taken over by Morris & Perry (Gurney Slade) Ltd. who still operate the quarry. A Concrete plant was installed in 1963 and a coated macadam plant in 2001. The site is now capable of supplying up to 2 Million Tonnes Per Annum of Carboniferous Limestone aggregate.

See also

• Quarries of the Mendip Hills
  Quarries of the Mendip Hills
  The Mendip Hills are the most southerly Carboniferous Limestone Upland in Britain and are found in northern Somerset.They are composed of three major anticlinal structures, each with a core of older Devonian sandstone and Silurian volcanic rocks...