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Vinegar Down Quarry

Combe Down, Bath.

The quarry worked in the middle of the 19th Century and reopened again in 1912. In 1913, the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette described it as "an open one, with a cavern or chamber in one corner" used for tool storage and meal breaks, although this obviously does not account for the air shaft approximately 100 metres away. The site is now levelled and lost.

Alternative Names: Binegar Down Quarry

Notes: It is known that Charles Conolly owned the Vinegar Down Quarry in April 1814 and it is possible that he had the Kingham Quarry tramway extended further up Summer Lane to serve the Vinegar Down Quarry. This would have allowed the easy transportation of stone down to Tucking Mill and onto the Somerset Coal Canal.

The quarry closed in 1913 following one of the few known fatal accidents in the stone quarries. Frederick Davidge was was attempting to make safe an area of roof in the chamber and was crushed by falling boulders and blocks. The newspaper article in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette (1913) contains a fascinating account of the widows's successful claim for compensation against the quarry owner, Mr Herbert Jones at the Bath County Court.