Keepershields Quarry

Overview

A whinstone quarry on the Great Whin Sill in the North Tyne country, one of the large workings that have cut into the sill for roadstone and aggregate. What sets it apart is geological: the sill here is 36 metres thick and carries a pegmatitic zone, clusters of long feathery augite crystals with intergrown quartz and feldspar, which is rare in Northumberland because the sills are usually too thin for it to develop.

History

The Great Whin Sill runs in a near-continuous belt across south-central Northumberland from Kirkwhelpington westwards to Greenhead, and its quartz-dolerite has been quarried wherever it can be reached. Historic England's account of the county's building stones names Keepershield among the places where whinstone was worked for concrete, roadstone, aggregate and building stone, alongside East White Hill Quarry at Kirkwhelpington and Divet Hill Quarry, with the larger quarries at Barrasford and Colwell worked mainly for roadstone and aggregate. The quarry was still taking stone in October 2014, when lorry loads were being carried to it periodically from Swinburne Quarry, three kilometres to the north, where extraction and coating had stopped. The British Geological Survey singles Keepershields out for what the quarry face shows: the sill is 36 metres thick here, thick enough for a pegmatitic zone to have formed about a third of the way down from the top, which is rare in Northumberland where the sills are generally thinner than fifty metres.

Geology

The quarry works the Great Whin Sill, a quartz-dolerite intruded into the Alston Formation. The sill rock is dark grey-black to black, fine to medium grained and weakly porphyritic, with phenocrysts of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene in a fine dark groundmass; grain size rises from the tachylitic margins towards the centre. Where the sill is thick enough a pegmatitic zone develops about a third of the way down from the top, and at Keepershields, with 36 metres of sill, it does. The pegmatitic patches and veins are marked by clusters of long, feathery augite crystals and intergrown quartz and alkali feldspar; calcium-poor pyroxenes are absent from them and iron-titanium oxides rare, while biotite and hornblende become important minor constituents. This facies is rare in Northumberland, where the sills are generally thinner than fifty metres.

Workings

An open quarry on the sill, worked for roadstone and aggregate and for concrete and building stone. In 2014 it was taking stone brought in by lorry from Swinburne Quarry as well as its own.

Closure

The quarry was receiving stone from Swinburne Quarry in October 2014.

What remains

A working quarry in 2014, when stone from the idle Swinburne Quarry was being carted here. The face is the reason the British Geological Survey cites the site: it exposes a pegmatitic zone in a 36-metre thickness of the sill.

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

Redevelopment

None recorded.

Related mines

• Divethill 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.
• Ratcheugh Quarry — A Whin Sill quarry in the North Tyne valley.
• Swinburne Quarry — Both quarry the Great Whin Sill, and by October 2014 Swinburne had stopped extracting and coating and was sending lorry loads of its stone to Keepershields instead.

Nearby mines

• Barrasford Quarry — 2.4 km NE
• Brunton Bank Quarry — 4.3 km SE
• Stonecroft and Greyside Mine — 5.6 km SW
• Swinburne Quarry — 6.3 km NE
• Fallowfield Mine — 6.4 km SE

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 Keepershield for concrete, roadstone, aggregate and building stone. ¹
• The Great Whin Sill is 36 metres thick at Keepershields Quarry, which exhibits a pegmatitic zone. ²
• The pegmatitic patches and veins are marked by clusters of long, feathery augite crystals and intergrown quartz and alkali feldspar; the facies is rare in Northumberland, where the sills are generally thinner than fifty metres. ²
• In October 2014 lorry loads of stone were being taken to Keepershield Quarry from the nearby Swinburne Quarry. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) CED03 Whinstone (quoting Historic England, Building Stones of England: Northumberland) — Stone Library, Sheffield Hallam University
2. (primary) Early Permian magmatism, Northern England — British Geological Survey (Earthwise)
3. (observational) Swinburne Quarry, Northumberland, October 2014 — 28DaysLater

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