Four Parishes Research Pits and pools

Pits and pools

File Download: Research on Coal workings at Prescott near Stottesdon

Possible limestone workings near Stottesdon [+]
This is part of the tithe map for Stottesdon, drawn up in the middle of the 19th Century. The blue areas show pools and hollows, possibly the result of limestone working.

As part of our history project funded by the Local Heritage Initiative, the Four Parishes Heritage Group have recently acquired copies of the tithe maps for Highley, Kinlet, Billingsley and Stottesdon. Tithe maps were drawn up around 1840 for virtually every parish in the country. They show every field, house, barn and road; furthermore, the name of each field is given. Thus they are a very useful resource for local historians, providing a detailed picture of the countryside at the start of the reign of Queen Victoria. In fact, many features that they show had probably been in existence long before the maps were drawn up and may indeed date from medieval times.

One striking feature of the Stottesdon maps are the number of fields with pools in them. Not every tithe map would be expected to show this level of detail; we are fortunate that the surveyor for Stottesdon was particularly diligent. Sometimes pools occur naturally, but in our part of Shropshire this is unlikely unless the pool is on a stream; the Stottesdon examples are well away from any watercourses. Pools can also be created for use of animals, but again, the Stottesdon pools seem too big for this. A clue as to their origin is the fact that they lie in lines, close to each other. They seem to be following a series of natural features; almost certainly they were flooded quarries. Further support for this comes from the fact that a number of other fields that are close to them are called either “Pit field” or “Quarry field”. Indeed, final confirmation comes from the fact that in one of the Pit fields, an active quarry is marked.

Many of the pools and pits have been filled or ploughed out, but a few survive, as saucer-shaped hollows, typically about 50 feet in diameter and a few feet deep in the middle. By looking at the stone dug up moles in these hollows, it seems clear that it was limestone that was being quarried. Limestone is found in a series of bands and the quarries follow these outcrops. There is virtually no written records to tell us about these quarries. Clearly some were at work when the tithe maps were drawn up and Stottesdon Chapel (c1840) has been built using stone from one of these. We hope that we can discover more buildings and perhaps boundary walls that might have used the local limestone. However, much limestone was burnt in kilns and spread on fields as a fertiliser. We do not expect to find many surviving limekilns, but there a number of fields called “Limekiln Field” which show where they stood; if these are regularly ploughed, the kiln sites might show up as dark stains on the ground.

Whilst the best examples we have come across of these limestone quarries are in Stottesdon, field walking shows they are elsewhere as well. A series of shallow depressions can be seen from a footpath that runs by Crumpsend Farm in Kinlet; these are also almost certainly quarries. Interestingly, a hedge now runs through the middle of one of these, showing it must be several hundred years old. Some of these quarries may be very old indeed; some medieval accounts for elsewhere in Kinlet dating from 1373 refer to Limepit field. It is possible that some of the Stottesdon quarries could be just as old. As we do more fieldwork and documentary research, we hope we might be able to discover more about this forgotten industry.