OLD DEVONPORT . UK
Plus parts of East Cornwall and West Devon
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: April 06, 2019
Webpage updated: April 06, 2019

To go to the Home Page          To go to the A-Z Contents Page

CALLINGTON BRANCH  |  BRANCH LINE, BERE ALSTON STATION TO CALLINGTON STATION

WEST OF ENGLAND SIDING (FOR PEARSON'S QUARRY)

The West of England Siding was located on the Up side to Bere Alston, just after Gunnislake Station.  It was almost opposite the Sand Hill Park Siding, which was on the Down side.

It is not clear whether or not the East Cornwall Mineral Railway Company installed a siding at this point.  The private internal railway to link the Quarry face with the ECMR is first referred to as being installed by Messrs S Pearson and Son Limited when they acquired the Quarry in 1896.  The Siding, which was in fact a loop siding, with facing access from both the Down and Up directions, was probably installed at the same time.  It is certainly recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1905.

What was to become known as Pearson's Quarry was opened in 1808.  It was advertised for sale at auction on August 4th 1826 along with Sand Hill House.  The House was advertised for sale again on December 23rd 1828 but without any mention of the Quarry.

By 1875 the Quarry was in the hands of the Gunnislake Granite Company and in 1878 it was reported as being managed by Messrs Crocker and Son in partnership.  It was acquired from them at the beginning of 1880 by Mr Edward Story, of Camplehaye, in the Parish of Lamerton.

It is said that the Quarry was closed down in 1896 but was re-opened soon afterwards by Messrs S Pearson and Son Limited, a national firm of contractors.  They are said to have employed 700 men and boys in its heyday and supplied granite to the Royal Dockyard at Devonport and for the fortifications that were erected around the Three Towns in the 1890s.  Stone was also supplied for Dover Breakwater and to the Great Western Railway Company for the doubling of their tracks through Devon and Cornwall.  Because the Quarry was so close to housing, the granite had to be excavated by hand as blasting would have been dangerous.  After the Calstock Viaduct had been completed, Pearson's purchased one of their locomotives, "Ada", for use on their private line inside the Quarry.  They may have acquired a second engine from the same source.

"The Cornish and Devon Post" on Saturday March 7th had stated that: 'The granite quarry at Gunnislake, lately known as Messrs Pearson's, was restarted Monday morning by the name of the Cornish Granite Company.  Cutters, settmakers, and labourers have been re-engaged under the same management as before.'  However, "The Cornishman" dated Thursday March 12th 1908 reported that: 'The men employed at Messrs Pearson's Gunnislake quarries were paid off on Thursday and the extensive works closed.'  About two hundred men were made unemployed.  So the men were ere-employed on Monday March 2nd but the quarry was not closed until Thursday March 5th.  One of those reports is clearly incorrect, although it implies at best that the men may have been unemployed only from Friday until Sunday.

Certainly the Quarry had been closed down completely by September 1911, when the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway Company stated that they had lost much trade as a result of the stoppage at Pearson's Quarry.

It is said that the private railway within the Quarry was removed in 1915, probably for scrap metal for the War effort, by which time it was said to measure a quarter of a mile across and be 150 feet deep in places.

The Siding, as Pearson's Siding, was still included in the Railway Clearing House "Hand-Book of Railway Stations, etc.," in 1956, although it was not mentioned in the Southern Railway Company's working instructions of 1934.  It presumably was not removed in 1915 but was no longer in use. 

The granite pillars over the main entrance were removed in 1980 when houses were built on the site.