Nutfield and Redhill Fuller's Earth Mines

Overview

The largest fuller's earth deposit in Britain, worked across a belt of quarries and pits between Redhill and Nutfield in Surrey for over four centuries — first for cleaning raw wool, later as an industrial absorbent and refining clay — until the last works closed in 1996.

History

The 'Fulling Earth Field' at Nutfield is recorded as early as 1583, and the area's beds — by far the largest fuller's earth resource in Britain, historically responsible for the majority of national production — were worked for centuries chiefly to clean and thicken raw wool. The Fuller's Earth Union was formed in 1890, bringing together the Surrey workings with others around Bath, and the Copyhold Works, established around 1860-70, grew into the most successful of the Redhill-area quarries, its customers shifting through the 20th century from the woollen trade to oil refining and chemical manufacture.

Geology

The fuller's earth occurs as a bed within the Lower Greensand along the Nutfield Ridge, worked both by open pit where it lay near the surface and by underground mining where the best beds lay under thicker cover.

Workings

Fuller's earth was dug both from open pits and, where the best beds lay too deep to strip, from underground mine workings, then processed nearby — from the 1950s at Laporte's purpose-built Cockley Works — into activated (acid-treated) fuller's earth for industrial use.

Closure

Laporte Industries, which had bought the works in 1954, closed its activation capacity at Redhill after opening a new plant at Widnes in 1981, and shut the Copyhold Works entirely in 1996 as the local reserves and demand declined.

What remains

The former Copyhold Works stood derelict for years after closure before eventual redevelopment; other former pits in the area have been landscaped or built over.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The 'Fulling Earth Field' at Nutfield is first recorded in 1583. (uncertain) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The 'Fulling Earth Field' at Nutfield is first recorded in 1583. (uncertain) ¹
• The Fuller's Earth Union, formed in 1890, brought together the Surrey workings with others around Bath, Somerset. ¹
• Laporte Industries closed the Copyhold Works in 1996 after opening a new activation plant at Widnes in 1981. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Fullers Earth Union — Grace's Guide
2. (observational) Old fullers earth works (Copyhold Works) — Geograph Britain and Ireland
3. (primary) Mine plan search: NUTFIELD / REDHILL / FULLER'S EARTH — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
4. (secondary) Fuller's earth — Wikipedia

Record created: 25 August 2026 · Last researched: 25 August 2026