Torr Works, Limestone quarry in East Cranmore, Somerset, England.
Torr Works is a working limestone quarry in the Mendip Hills, close to East Cranmore in Somerset, England. The extraction takes place across several levels cut into the hillside, and a private railway line runs directly from the quarry to connect with the national network for transporting stone.
Foster Yeoman took over the quarry in 1958 and gave it the name Torr Works in 1970, in honor of chief engineer Ron Torr. The site grew steadily over the following decades into one of the largest limestone quarries in Britain.
Torr Works sits in the Mendip Hills, a region long associated with stone quarrying and rural industry in Somerset. Visitors who pass near the site can observe the rail loading operations, which remain an unusual sight in the modern quarrying world.
The quarry is an active industrial site and is not open to the general public without prior arrangement. Those visiting the surrounding area should wear sturdy footwear, as the paths near the site can be rough and uneven.
The quarry walls expose a geological boundary where pale grey Carboniferous limestone meets younger Jurassic oolitic limestone in a sharp, visible contact. This kind of direct contact between rock formations of very different ages is rarely seen so clearly in a single working site.
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