Westbury Ironstone Quarry

Overview

A Wiltshire ironstone quarry that fed the Great Western Iron Ore Smelting Company's works at Westbury for over seventy years, its worked-out open pits now flooded into a chain of lakes still known locally as 'the mineholes' — and its exposed ironstone now protected as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in its own right.

History

High-grade iron ore was discovered north of Westbury during construction of the railway in the 1840s, exposing Upper Oxfordian ironstone deposits that would go on to occupy a prominent place in accounts of British ferruginous geology after being formally described by the geologist Greenwell in 1859. The find prompted formation of the Great Western Iron Ore Smelting Company in 1857, which began operations the following year at a works built immediately behind Westbury's railway station — allowing ore, coal and finished iron to move easily by rail. The works started with a small number of furnaces, soon doubled to four as demand grew, drawing on ironstone quarried from workings that eventually extended some 3.5km along the outcrop to the north-east and south-west of the town.

The business weathered the wider economic downturn of 1877 through workforce reductions and partial shutdowns, and faced further financial difficulty in the early 1900s before stabilising under new management and benefiting from increased wartime demand during the First World War. Operational trouble with a faulty furnace in the 1930s brought the works to final closure in 1933. The worked-out open-cast pits were left to flood, becoming a series of lakes still known locally as 'the mineholes'; the former works site is remembered in the name of the modern Slag Lane nearby.

Geology

Upper Oxfordian ironstone, found north of Westbury during railway construction in the 1840s.

Workings

Open-cast ironstone workings extending some 3.5km along the outcrop to the north-east and south-west of Westbury, feeding a smelting works built behind the town's railway station that grew from a handful of furnaces to four.

Closure

The abandoned open-cast pits flooded after closure to form a chain of lakes known locally as 'the mineholes'.

What remains

The abandoned open-cast pits flooded after closure to form a chain of lakes locally known as 'the mineholes'. The ironstone exposure itself is protected as a 5,600 square metre geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, notified in 1965 for its importance to British and European accounts of Upper Oxfordian ferruginous deposits and their stratigraphy.

Recorded claims

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

• High-grade iron ore was found north of Westbury during 1840s railway construction; the Great Western Iron Ore Smelting Company was formed in 1857 and began operating a works behind the railway station in 1858. ¹
• The works began with a small number of furnaces, soon doubled to four as demand grew. ¹
• The company weathered the economic downturn of 1877 through workforce reductions and partial shutdowns. ¹
• Operational trouble with a faulty furnace in the 1930s brought the works to final closure in 1933. ¹
• The exposed ironstone is protected as a 5,600 square metre geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, notified in 1965. ²

Sources

1. (secondary) Iron Works — Westbury Heritage Society
2. (secondary) Westbury Ironstone Quarry — Wikipedia

Record created: 26 August 2026 · Last researched: 26 August 2026