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Box Quarry - Cathedral Shaft

Box Fields, Box.

The grilled square vertical shaft, approximately 2m x 2m, is in the garden of 4 Boxfields Cottage. There is no access permitted.

Alternative Names: Cathedral Shaft, Box Field Quarry, Boxfield Quarry, Boxfields Quarry

Notes: Boxfields Quarry was probably the first major underground quarry on Box Hill. The underground workings were accessed through two vertical shafts. Cathedral Shaft was worked from the surface downwards probably between November 1828 by William Jones Brewer. It enters the roof of the Cathedral, a spectacular quarried chamber approximately 60 metres long, 30m high and nearly 10m wide at its centre. The stone was quarried on three levels between 1830 and 1850 from the chamber and hauled to the surface through the shaft. Ownership later passed to 'Pictor & Sons,' who probably used it to access their adjoining underground workings, e.g. Tyning Quarry prior to the new roadway being cut through from the Clift entrance.

It is estimated that the roof above the Cathedral, i.e and below Boxfields Cottages is only about five metres thick.