Divethill Quarry

Overview

A working whinstone quarry on the Great Whin Sill in south-central Northumberland, one of the large quarries of the North Tyne district taking the sill for roadstone and aggregate. Its stone has gone into concrete and building work as well, and an asphalt plant on the site makes tarmac for road surfacing. In 2020 Northumberland County Council granted it a northward extension for another 2.7 million tonnes, against objections from three nearby settlements, with the ground afterwards to be returned to grassland and nature conservation.

History

The Great Whin Sill runs in a near-continuous belt through south-central Northumberland from Kirkwhelpington westwards to Greenhead, and wherever it can be reached its quartz-dolerite has been quarried. Historic England's account of the county's building stones names Divet Hill as one of the places where whinstone was worked for concrete, roadstone, aggregate and building stone, with East White Hill Quarry at Kirkwhelpington and Keepershield Quarry; the larger quarries at Barrasford and Colwell were worked mainly for roadstone and aggregate. In 2020 the county council's strategic planning committee took an application for a lateral extension north of the existing boundary, to work about 2.7 million tonnes of whinstone in phases and then restore the ground to agricultural grassland and nature conservation. Residents objected that quarrying would come within 125 metres of the nearest houses at Clay Walls Farm, 250 metres of homes at Great Bavington and 350 metres of those at Newonstead, and that the setting and views of the Great Bavington Conservation Area would be sacrificed. The committee was told that the northern extension was an allocated site in the local plan, that the quarry provided high quality stone for construction and had an asphalt plant for road surfacing, and that minerals can only be worked where they are found. Permission was granted by eight votes to four, with a monitoring system and a liaison group to answer the residents' concerns.

Geology

The quarry works the Great Whin Sill, intruded into the Alston Formation and running in a near-continuous belt through south-central Northumberland from Kirkwhelpington westwards to Greenhead. The sill rock — whinstone — is a dark grey-black to black, fine to medium grained, weakly porphyritic quartz-dolerite, with small phenocrysts of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene set in a fine dark groundmass and appreciable iron oxides and pyrite. The grain size drops markedly at the sill's margins, where the rock is a very fine-grained tachylite, and in its upper half the dolerite is cut locally by flat-lying sheets and veins of coarse pegmatitic dolerite with crystals up to twenty millimetres long. Its hardness and resistance to erosion are what make it an excellent roadstone and aggregate.

Workings

An open quarry, extended laterally northwards under the 2020 permission for the phased extraction of about 2.7 million tonnes; an asphalt plant on the site turns the stone into tarmac for road surfacing.

Closure

Still worked. The 2020 permission for the northern extension provides for phased extraction of about 2.7 million tonnes and restoration afterwards to agricultural grassland and nature conservation.

What remains

In production, with an asphalt plant on site. A monitoring system and a liaison group were put in place with the 2020 extension in answer to residents' concerns about noise, dust and the setting of the Great Bavington Conservation Area.

A working quarry rather than a ruin: the open face on the Whin Sill, the plant and the asphalt works.

Redevelopment

The ground is to be restored to agricultural grassland and nature conservation as working is completed.

Related mines

• Keepershields Quarry — Both quarry the Great Whin Sill, the same named intrusion, and Historic England's account of the county's building stones names them together among the places its whinstone was worked.
• Swinburne Quarry — Both quarry the Great Whin Sill, the same named intrusion, in the North Tyne district, and Historic England's account of the county's building stones names them together among the places its whinstone was worked.

Nearby mines

• Swinburne Quarry — 4.2 km SW
• Barrasford Quarry — 8.1 km SW
• Brunton Bank Quarry — 10.4 km SW
• Keepershields Quarry — 10.5 km SW
• Fallowfield Mine — 12.0 km S

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.

• Whinstone was worked at Divet Hill for concrete, roadstone, aggregate and building stone. ¹
• Northumberland County Council granted a northward extension in 2020 for the phased extraction of about 2.7 million tonnes of whinstone, by eight votes to four. ²
• Objectors said the working would come within 125 metres of the nearest houses at Clay Walls Farm, 250 metres of homes at Great Bavington and 350 metres of those at Newonstead. ²
• The site has an asphalt plant producing tarmac for road surfacing. ²
• The ground is to be restored to agricultural grassland and nature conservation. ²
• The quarry works the Great Whin Sill, a quartz-dolerite intruded into the Alston Formation. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) CED03 Whinstone (quoting Historic England, Building Stones of England: Northumberland) — Stone Library, Sheffield Hallam University
2. (primary) Application 20/03660/CCMEIA, Divet Hill Quarry: report and minutes of the strategic planning committee — Northumberland County Council

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