Borras Quarry

Overview

The largest sand and gravel quarry in Wales: eighty hectares of glacial sand and gravel north-east of Wrexham, dug out of what was once an airfield. RAF Wrexham closed after the Second World War and was sold in 1959 to the United Gravel Company; quarrying began in the 1970s and continues. Stripping the soil ahead of the diggers has made the site one of the most productive archaeological excavations in north-east Wales, with Neolithic earth ovens, a Romano-British field system and early medieval smithing all found since 2008.

History

Fields at Borras Lodge were used for flying as early as 1917 to 1920, by training squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force based at Shotwick and Hooton Park. In the 1940s the ground was pressed into service again as RAF Wrexham, with three grass runways of 500 to 600 metres, most of the construction falling between December 1940 and June 1941. The airfield closed after the war and on 22 October 1959 was sold to the United Gravel Company, a subsidiary of Alfred McAlpine, as a source of sand and gravel; quarrying began in the 1970s. At eighty hectares Borras is the largest sand and gravel quarry in Wales, one of a cluster of sand quarries around Wrexham with Marford three kilometres to the north, Ballswood three and a half and Fagl Lane eight. It remains an active quarry supplying construction and infrastructure in the region. Since 2008, when soil stripping ahead of an expansion exposed a number of pits with evidence of burning in place, archaeologists have returned to the site year after year as the quarry advances. Two phases of prehistoric activity have been dated: Neolithic pit groups, several filled with charcoal and fire-cracked stones and used as earth ovens, with hearths, post-holes and Peterborough Ware pottery, radiocarbon dated between about 3600 and 2900 BC, and a later Bronze Age phase. Excavations in 2015 and 2016 found parts of a Romano-British field system with pottery, a single coin and a fragment of a glass vessel, of the second and third centuries and perhaps into the fourth, suggesting a prosperous farm or small villa just outside the extraction boundary; a few pits have produced evidence of smithing in the early medieval period.

Geology

The quarry works sand and gravel, part of a group of such deposits around Wrexham that also feeds the quarries at Marford, Ballswood and Fagl Lane.

Workings

Open working of sand and gravel across eighty hectares, advancing in phases with the soil stripped ahead of it, which is how the archaeology comes to light. The actively worked ground is of limited wildlife interest, but the quarry margins and old workings carry bare ground among extensive early-successional, flower-rich grassland, and it is that which makes the site important for bees, wasps and ants.

Closure

Still worked and still expanding, each phase of expansion preceded by archaeological work as the soil is stripped.

What remains

An active quarry supplying construction materials, with archaeological excavation running alongside the extraction. Its margins and worked-out ground are among the better invertebrate habitats in north-east Wales, surveyed for aculeate bees, wasps and ants, beetles and flies in 2013.

A working quarry rather than a ruin.

Redevelopment

The quarry is itself the redevelopment of an airfield: RAF Wrexham was sold for its sand and gravel in 1959 and worked from the 1970s.

Nearby mines

• Gresford Colliery — 2.2 km NW
• Marford Quarry — 3.9 km N
• Llay Main Colliery — 4.1 km NW
• Gwersyllt Colliery — 5.0 km W
• Gatewen Colliery — 5.1 km W

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• At eighty hectares, Borras Quarry is the largest sand and gravel quarry in Wales. ¹
• The airfield closed after the Second World War and was sold on 22 October 1959 to the United Gravel Company, a subsidiary of Alfred McAlpine; quarrying began in the 1970s. ²
• Soil stripping in spring 2008 exposed pits with evidence of burning in place, leading to examination of a large area and significant evidence for prehistoric and later activity. ³
• Neolithic pit groups included features filled with charcoal and fire-cracked stones used as earth ovens, with Peterborough Ware pottery and radiocarbon dates between about 3600 and 2900 BC. ³
• Excavations in 2015 and 2016 identified parts of a Romano-British field system with pottery, a coin and a glass vessel fragment of the second and third centuries AD. ³
• The quarry margins and old workings support bare ground among extensive early-successional, flower-rich grassland, which is key to its rich aculeate fauna. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Brownfield sites and their value for invertebrates: a survey of selected sand quarries in north-east Wales in 2013 (NRW Evidence Report 21) — Natural Resources Wales
2. (secondary) Borras — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Borras Quarry, Wrexham — Heneb: the Trust for Welsh Archaeology

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026