Bituminous Shale Company

Took a lease of the Kimmeridge minerals in 1848, laid a tramway from the clifftop workings down to a pier in the bay and opened a distillation works at Weymouth producing naphtha, paraffin, wax, grease and pitch. It lost a legal challenge to James Young’s paraffin patent, was indicted as a public nuisance for the smell of its works, and was wound up in 1854.

Mines operated

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 6 September 2026