About Chipping Sodbury quarry

Chipping Sodbury quarry is located to the north of Chipping Sodbury and west of Yate. The quarry complex comprises of four carboniferous limestone quarries – Southfields, Brinsham East, Brinsham West and Hampstead Farm. 

The 500-acre quarry sits on a ridge of limestone stretching north to Wickwar and Cromhall. It directly employs 22 people, including staff and site-based contractors, plus many more in the local supply chain.  Producing around 1,000,000 tonnes of limestone aggregates a year, the quarry supplies both Heidelberg Materials concrete plants as well as external customers. Materials derived from Chipping Sodbury have been used to construct projects ranging from major motorway repair schemes to local building works. 

We are committed to being a good neighbour and actively support local initiatives and programmes which benefit the community and environment. We also work in close partnership with a number of conservation bodies to protect and enhance biodiversity at the site and regularly host school and college visits.
 

History of the quarry

Evidence suggests that quarrying in the Chipping Sodbury area goes back to the Middle Ages, although the discovery of artefacts such as a Bronze Age axe head and Roman tiles and coins, suggests it may have been even earlier.  

Since the mid-1800s limestone has been quarried commercially in the area with high quality mineral deposits found mostly in rocks from the Triassic age. Early last century Chipping Sodbury was home to a quarry called Lilliput, which excavated rock used as ballast for the 1903 Badminton Line Railway. The site of this quarry now serves as school playing fields.

In 1977, a tunnel was constructed beneath Wickwar Road so that quarrying could begin at Hampstead Farm. Today material is transported through the tunnel to the Southfields processing plant by a fleet of 4 Komatsu HD605 dump trucks, each capable of carrying 63 tonnes of material.

In 2015, a new excavation area in Brinsham East was opened and mineral extraction has been focused in this area since. Quarrying operations are set to soon move westwards into Brinsham West, where there are extensive permitted limestone reserves.

Quarrying today

Modern quarrying is highly regulated, and we take steps to minimise impact on the surrounding environment, as well as ensuring we are a good neighbour within the local communities in which we operate. 

Heidelberg Materials (formerly Hanson) has made significant investment in environmental improvements to reduce dust and noise in recent years. This includes installing a computer-controlled dust suppression system, enclosure of the screening operations at Southfields and sprayers on the ends of every crushed rock conveyer belt across the site. 

Sprayers have also been installed alongside internal roads, which have been surfaced to keep dust down and there are wheel washes for HGVs before leaving the quarry. We also initiate regular road sweeping of the public highway.

As part of our biodiversity initiatives extensive habitat enhancements were carried out in 2014, including the creation of six new ponds, several temporary wet scrapes and the planting of 2,900 trees and shrubs to boost wildlife habitats and provide wildlife corridors. More recently hydroseeding of the quarry banks near the offices in Southfields has taken place as well as the planting of a further 2,900 trees to improve habitat connectivity. 

The quarry’s Biodiversity Action Plan can be reviewed here.