Brown Clee is five miles north of Titterstone Clee (earlier report) and made from the same very durable type of dolerite known as dhustone. It was widely quarried as ballast for road making before other options became more economical.
Some of the quarries on Tittersone Clee are still active, but those on Brown Clee are all derelict, the last closing in the 1936.
The easiest approach is up a steep former incline railway line. On either side of the road at the top of the hill are deep quarry pits, grassed-over spoilheaps and the gaunt ruins of former quarry buildings – a stone crusher, a tar pit, a locomotive shed and other structures, all roofless, their reinforced concrete frames gaping open at the sky.
It's a pretty desolate place. Even the footpaths up the hill are poorly marked. These ruins are largely unknown, forgotten, I suspect, even by local people.
From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, this was a place of activity and noise, with the pounding of the crusher and the clattering of the railway trucks. Eventually the quarries closed, the railway was dismantled, the buildings collapsed, and the spoilheaps grassed over.
There are supposed to be a number of wrecked aircraft on the slopes. I couldn't find any, but I did discover the remains of hundreds of bell pits (caused by collapse of shallow coal workings) on the southern summit. . They didn't photograph well., so I've attached a link to an aerial photograph in which they are obvious.
It's not the sort of place you would want to go when it's foggy.
Inclined plane - now an access road to the BT transmitters on the top. Steeper than it looks here.
The incline joined up eventually with the branch line that served the nearby munitions factory at Ditton Priors (also worth an explore).
Upper terminus of the incline
judging by location, i think this may have been an old railway shed
Main crushing plant
old fireplace? - remains of what may have been the tar pit behind
Terminus of incline on other side of hill
not sure about this
link to flash earth showing bell pits
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.457427&lon=-2.596806&z=16.6&r=0&src=msa
Some of the quarries on Tittersone Clee are still active, but those on Brown Clee are all derelict, the last closing in the 1936.
The easiest approach is up a steep former incline railway line. On either side of the road at the top of the hill are deep quarry pits, grassed-over spoilheaps and the gaunt ruins of former quarry buildings – a stone crusher, a tar pit, a locomotive shed and other structures, all roofless, their reinforced concrete frames gaping open at the sky.
It's a pretty desolate place. Even the footpaths up the hill are poorly marked. These ruins are largely unknown, forgotten, I suspect, even by local people.
From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th, this was a place of activity and noise, with the pounding of the crusher and the clattering of the railway trucks. Eventually the quarries closed, the railway was dismantled, the buildings collapsed, and the spoilheaps grassed over.
There are supposed to be a number of wrecked aircraft on the slopes. I couldn't find any, but I did discover the remains of hundreds of bell pits (caused by collapse of shallow coal workings) on the southern summit. . They didn't photograph well., so I've attached a link to an aerial photograph in which they are obvious.
It's not the sort of place you would want to go when it's foggy.
Inclined plane - now an access road to the BT transmitters on the top. Steeper than it looks here.
The incline joined up eventually with the branch line that served the nearby munitions factory at Ditton Priors (also worth an explore).
Upper terminus of the incline
judging by location, i think this may have been an old railway shed
Main crushing plant
old fireplace? - remains of what may have been the tar pit behind
Terminus of incline on other side of hill
not sure about this
link to flash earth showing bell pits
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.457427&lon=-2.596806&z=16.6&r=0&src=msa
