Did you know? You can still see the remains of some significant quarries in east Exeter. For some houses, the quarry face is their garden wall!
Heavitree Breccia is our local stone. It starts here and reaches out. Many of Exeter’s most interesting and historic buildings are built of it. It has a character all of its own. It’s a deep, Devonian red but is particularly characterised by being very coarse in texture. And it’s ours!
https://heavitreequarrytrails.org.uk/
So why Heavitree Stone? Or ‘bullock’s blood and gravel’ as it is known (can you see why?). The story begins 280 million years ago when, hard to believe, this whole area was an arid desert. Far to the north violent storms raged and the torrential rain led to dramatic flash floods. The fragments of rock and pebbles carried by the floods settled, mixed with the red desert sand and were then compressed over the millennia into a distinctive red stone.
Fast forward to human settlement in Exeter and people needed stone for building. The costs of transporting stone were much higher than the costs of quarrying it, so the nearer to home your supply, the better. Once you get your eye in, you will start finding Heavitree Stone all over the place, especially the old walls.
Photo: https://heavitreequarrytrails.org.uk/q-quarries/
The Trails
The Quarry Pod has created not one, not two, but THREE ready-made trails for you to pick up, in leaflet form, to follow and discover Heavitree Stone heritage for yourself.
You can get hold of the printed leaflets at the celebration on the Quay on 22 July 2018, and we’re hoping after that from the Tourist Information Centre and Custom House.
You can also download them here in two different pdf versions: for printing as double-sided A4 to create your own leaflet; and a long thin version to view on your mobile.
Trail 1: Heavitree
There were outcrops of the red stone at Heavitree, and this was quarried from the early medieval period right up to relatively recent times. It is a coarse and rather soft stone, prone to weathering, but you can find all across our city. This leaflet picks out seven examples in Heavitree itself, each with its own history.
http://heavitreequarrytrails.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Trail-1-Heavitree-A4-printing.pdf
Trail 2: The City Centre
The costs of transporting stone were much higher than the costs of quarrying it, so the nearer to home your supply, the better. There were outcrops of the red stone at Heavitree, and this was quarried from the early medieval period right up to relatively recent times. It is a coarse and rather soft stone, prone to weathering, but you can find all across our city. This leaflet takes you to eight particular examples, each with its own history, although you can find many more sightings of the stone on the walk.
http://heavitreequarrytrails.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Trail-2-City-Centre-A4-printing.pdf
Trail 3: The Quay and St Thomas
There were outcrops of the red stone at Heavitree, and this was quarried from the early medieval period right up to relatively recent times. It is a coarse and rather soft stone, prone to weathering, but you can find it all across our city. This guide takes you to ten examples, each with its own history.
Start on the east side of the quay, where there are plenty of places for a coffee or other refreshments and you can browse in the craft cellars.
http://heavitreequarrytrails.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Trail-3-Quay-A4-printing.pdf
Devon County Council - Permian Breccias, Sandstones and Volcanics Further north, inland, Permian breccias and sands can be traced to beyond the border with Somerset, one important formation being the Heavitree Breccia, similar to the Teignmouth Breccia, quarried extensively for building stone for the city of Exeter up until the 19th Century. Many city churches owe their character and their colour to this stone, though weather and frost have caused some degradation since. The great church at Crediton, and others in mid Devon, are built of similar rocks.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/geology/devons-rocks-a-geological-guide/
Royal Albert Memorial Museum Heavitree stone was the principal building stone used in Exeter during the late Middle Ages and early modern period. It is a coarse breccia, that is a stone in which are embedded angular stone fragments. It was laid down in semi-arid conditions by flash flooding, so the stone fragments are not rounded in the manner of sedimentary deposits laid down in the sea. It dates to the Triassic period, and is about 280 million years old.
Quarries were opened at Heavitree and Wonford around 1350, and operated until the mid 19th century. The stone is prone to weathering, but nevertheless was used in many of Exeter’s parish churches and other buildings including Wynard’s almshouses, the Guildhall, many of the merchants’ houses in the High Street, the Georgian warehouses at the Quay and the Victorian pumping stations built by Brunel along the railway between Exeter and Torquay.
https://www.rammtimetrail.org.uk/Object/859/
Wikipedia Heavitree stone is a type of breccia stone, red in colour, of very coarse texture and prone to weathering, which occurs naturally in the parish of Heavitree near the City of Exeter in Devon, England. It was quarried in the area from about 1350 to the 19th century, and was used to construct many of Exeter's older buildings, including Exeter Castle, the old city walls, and many of the almshouses and parish churches. Many ancient buildings in Exeter made of Heavitree stone were destroyed by enemy bombing during World War II. It was first referred to by Sir Henry De La Beche in 1839, as the "Conglomerates of Heavitree".
