Abandoned Lime Kilns New Quay Tamar Valley Devon
by Richard Brookes
Title
Abandoned Lime Kilns New Quay Tamar Valley Devon
Artist
Richard Brookes
Medium
Photograph
Description
A bank of eerie derelict and overgrown lime kiln structures with huge buttresses line the long abandoned and now nearly forgotten remote quay at the formerly navigable River Tamar port of New Quay, in the Tamar Valley, Devon, SW England, UK.
These and other ruined buildings include what are thought to be warehouses, an inn and cottages as well as an inclined plain and remnants of the old mineral railway. Lime kilns were used to extract quicklime. Limestone (calcium carbonate) blocks or lumps were placed into the top of kilns alternating with layer of charcoal and were then heated to high temperatures to produce quicklime (calcium oxide). Lumps of stone was necessary to allow the furnace contents to breathe and burn at the correct temperature. The quicklime was raked out at the base of the kilns. On this site an inclined plane gave access to the top of the kilns and also the mineral railway serving nearby mines. Quicklime was used extensively in important building products of the time such as mortar and render.
These are such poignant reminders of the once bustling Victorian industrial hamlet and mining port tucked onto the steep, winding banks of the river Tamar, the natural boundary between Devon and Cornwall. New Quay was formerly an important copper, tin and later arsenic port serving local mines but was abandoned early in the C20th when cheaper imports made local mines uneconomical.
Due to its importance in the development of engineering technology and expertise that was exported all over the world, the site is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Landscape that is known as the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (no.1215) since 2006. Taken in late November sunshine.
Apparently, nearby Morwellham Quay, a port upstream, once had the dubious reputation of having enough arsenic on site at any one time to kill everyone on the planet. Arsenic was a by-product of copper and tin ore extraction and processing. The mineral was used primarily in pesticides, the production of glass and in wallpaper dyes to brighten them. In Victorian times it was also eaten with vinegar and chalk and rubbed on the skin by women to whiten their complexions. Do not try that at home! Morwellham Quay is now a working museum open to the public and illustrating and documenting the incredible and dangerous efforts to extract, process and transport these valuable commodities by local communities.
Uploaded
July 10th, 2021
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