Stancombe Quarry
Encyclopedia
Stancombe Quarry is a 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...

 at Flax Bourton
Flax Bourton
Flax Bourton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. The parish, with a population of 659, is situated within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset, on the edge of Nailsea Moor on the A370 road south west of Bristol city centre....

 near Backwell
Backwell
Backwell is a suburban village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It falls within the Unitary Authority of North Somerset and has a population of 5,455.It is south west of Bristol, on the A370 to Weston-super-Mare...

 in the North Somerset
North Somerset
North Somerset is a unitary authority in England. Its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare....

 district of 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.

The quarry was first built in 1952 and nearly destroyed Backwell Hillfort
Backwell Hillfort
Backwell Hillfort is an Iron Age hill fort situated approximately from Backwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. The hill fort was first discovered in 1933 with two of the three sides of the fort protected by a large ditch and a bank...

 in the process. Today, the quarry which is operated by Tarmac
Tarmac (company)
Tarmac is a company that is based in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom and operates internationally. The company produces aggregates and road-surfacing materials, including tarmacadam, from which the company's name is derived...

 produces Carboniferous Limestone
Carboniferous limestone
Carboniferous Limestone is a term used to describe a variety of different types of limestone occurring widely across Great Britain and Ireland which were deposited during the Dinantian epoch of the Carboniferous period. They were formed between 363 and 325 million years ago...

, which is mainly for use on the roads, after crushing on site. The site has a expect output of 28 million tonnes over a 25-year period.

In 1999 the car park at the quarry was used as a test site for a porous asphalt pavement.

In June 2010, an explosion involving a lorry
Lorry
-Transport:* Lorry or truck, a large motor vehicle* Lorry, or a Mine car in USA: an open gondola with a tipping trough* Lorry , a horse-drawn low-loading trolley-In fiction:...

 injured two people in Stancombe Quarry. The A320 road was closed but opened the following day.
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