Hay Head Quarry

Overview

The limestone quarries at Hay Head, on the eastern edge of Walsall, were the chief source of Barr Limestone in the parish and were being worked by 1593. They were served at the end by the Daw End branch canal, whose short arm at Longwood Junction ran to the works. Quarrying was abandoned by 1865. What is left is scientifically valuable rather than industrially: Hay Head is the type locality of the Barr Limestone and of the Barr Trilobite, the only place where the eastern boundary fault of the Black Country coalfield can be read in the landscape, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1986.

History

The Silurian rocks around Walsall carry three productive limestone beds, of which the lowest, the Barr or Woolhope Limestone, outcrops along the eastern boundary of the parish from Hay Head to Gillity Greaves. It was being worked by the fifteenth century — a lease of land at Holt Croft in 1443 reserved a limestone mine — and the Hay Head quarries themselves were at work by 1593, the chief source of Barr Limestone in Walsall. A neighbouring mine at Laundhill was in production between at least 1617 and 1677. Lord Mountrath had a works in the Dingle, partly in Aldridge, from at least 1767, and by the mid 1770s Thomas Hoo owned another adjoining it to the south. The quarries were disused around 1800, but by 1808 John Wilkinson, the Bilston ironmaster, had begun working them again; in 1813 they were occupied by James Brindley. The Mountrath sector had been abandoned by 1843, when Hoo's was owned by Sir Edward Dolman Scott and T. E. Foley of Stoke Edith and let to William Tolley. In 1850 Foley's widow re-let the works to Charles Roberts and Henry Eberhardt of Stourbridge; their partnership was dissolved in 1853 and an agreement of 1854 gave Roberts sole rights. He advertised the lease for sale later that year, and the works had been abandoned by 1865.

Geology

Hay Head is the type locality of the Barr Limestone, a lens of rock at the base of the Wenlock Shale of the Coalbrookdale Formation, laid down in shallow marine water in the middle Silurian. The limestone has long been known for its shelly fossils, above all trilobites, and the site is the type locality of the Barr Trilobite, Bumastus barriensis. Exposures in the long linear strip of the old quarries are shaley units with bentonites, stratigraphically within the lowest part of the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation, carrying fossils and microfossils that contrast strongly with the upper Wenlock exposed elsewhere. The beds end abruptly eastward where the Eastern Boundary Fault of the Black Country coalfield throws them against Coal Measures strata: this is the only site where that fault's effect can be seen in the landscape. The contrasting soils on either side of the fault carry two completely different kinds of woodland.

Geological setting: Faults and Fractures (well documented example), Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

The workings run as a long linear strip along the limestone outcrop, part open quarry and part mine — the 1443 lease reserved a limestone mine, and Walsall's concealed limestone further west was worked by pillar and stall. Output went out by water: the Daw End branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal, opened in 1800 and five and a half miles long without a lock, was built to the limestone quarries and lime works at Hay Head, and a short arm at Longwood Junction, no longer navigable, ran to the works.

Closure

Charles Roberts advertised the lease for sale in 1854 and the works had been abandoned by 1865. Nothing suggests the limestone was worked out; the Barr bed was the least valuable of the three around Walsall, the Wenlock Limestone being the one in demand as an iron-smelting flux.

What remains

The quarries are now woodland. The geosite lies within the Cuckoos' Nook and Dingle Local Nature Reserve, seven hectares of the borough, and the quarry ground itself is Hay Head Wood nature reserve off Longwood Lane, walked in 2014 and described then as a haven of woodland, grassland and wetland. Parts are ancient semi-natural woodland with a flora rich in plants uncommon elsewhere in the conurbation. The site remains in active use for research on microfossils and carbon isotope correlation, and has walking trails and interpretation but no visitor centre.

Nearby mines

• Walsall Wood Colliery — 5.1 km N, Staffordshire
• Hamstead Colliery — 5.3 km S
• Sandwell Park Colliery — 9.3 km S
• Holly Bank Colliery — 9.4 km NW, Staffordshire
• Grove Colliery — 9.6 km N, Staffordshire

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.

• The Barr Limestone was being worked by the fifteenth century — a 1443 lease of land at Holt Croft reserved a limestone mine — and the Hay Head quarries themselves were at work by 1593. ¹
• Hay Head is the type locality of the Barr Limestone and of the Barr Trilobite, Bumastus barriensis. ^2,3
• The site is the only one at which the effect of the eastern boundary fault of the Black Country coalfield can be seen in the landscape, the Silurian beds being abruptly down-faulted against Coal Measures strata. ³
• Hay Head Quarry was notified as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest of 5.8 hectares in 1986 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. ^2,4
• Charles Roberts advertised the lease for sale in 1854 and the works had been abandoned by 1865. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Walsall: Economic history — Victoria County History of Staffordshire, vol. 17 — Victoria County History
2. (primary) Hay Head Quarry — Site of Special Scientific Interest — Walsall Council
3. (primary) Hay Head Quarry geosite — Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark
4. (secondary) Hay Head Quarry — Wikipedia

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026