Thread: Titterstone Clee Hill, Shropshire

Here, there's a staggering amount of abandoned quarrying and mining buildings!

Titterstone Clee is the third-highest hill in Shropshire, beaten only by the nearby Brown Clee Hill (540 m) and Stiperstones (536 m). Much of the higher part of the hill is common land, used for the grazing of sheep, air traffic control services and both working and disused quarries. The summit of Titterstone Clee is bleak, treeless and shaped by decades of quarrying. Many of the industrial structures still remain, and lend to the ghostly atmosphere of the hill top, especially during the prolonged winter fogs that descend over these hills.

Investigations have led to some individuals to claim that Titterstone Clee was once an active volcano. However, this was conclusively shown to be incorrect in the 1930's when exposures clearly revealed an intrusive origin for the igneous rock which is found beneath the higher ground. Locally this is known as "Dhu Stone" (Gaelic for Black Stone); geologically it is an olivine basalt, sometimes coarse enough to be a dolerite.

The weather on Titterstone Clee Hill can be particularly hazardous, with locally infamous fog and drizzle being commonplace. Snow and ice can also cause problems in winter, as well as gales.

Most of the summit of the hill is affected by man-made, the result of hill fort construction during the Bronze and Iron Ages and, more recently, by years of mining for coal and quarrying for dhustone (dolerite) to be used in road-building. Also, many derelict quarry buildings are scattered over the hill, now used only by sheep sheltering from the worst of weather but interesting from an industrial archaeology point of view as very early examples of the use of reinforced concrete. Combined, these give the summit of the hill an eerie, other worldly feel.

History, quarrying and land usage

Over the years Titterstone Clee has been subject to much quarrying for dhustone or basalt. It is because of this that the hill is littered with many abandoned quarries. In medieval times ironstone and, later, coal were mined, in particular form bell pits: localised mine shafts, one of which has now flooded to form a lake. The largest quarries have sheer drops of up to around thirty metres (one hundred feet).

Before the Second World War, the area would be described as industrial, because of the presence of wide-scale quarrying and associated activity. Men came from places such as Bridgnorth and Ludlow to work in the quarries, and the villages of Bedlam and Dhustone on Titterstone Clee were built especially for the quarry workers. Crumbling remains of quarry buildings now litter the hill, reminders of a bygone industry that once employed more than 2,000 people here. An old narrow gauge railway incline is still visible on the hill, and a large concrete structure, under which the wagons were filled with stone, still remains next to the modern day car park.Nearby, on the flanks of Clee Hill, a standard gauge railway incline provided means of exporting quarried stone from above Cleehill village. This railway infrastructure remained intact until abandoned in the early 1960s.[2] In the past the quarries have also been worked (on a much smaller scale) for coal, fireclay and limestone.

Early in the 20th century, a further large quarry (the Magpie Quarry) opened on the eastern side of Clee Hill and an aerial ropeway was built to carry stone off the hill eastwards to the railway at Detton Ford. The footings for the tall pylons which supported the wires still remain near the summit, parallel to the modern day track to the radar domes.

from-

Titterstone Clee Hill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

additional links-

Titterstone Clee Introduction

Simon Denison Photography (click on the pics for other interesting stuff)

the pictures don't convey how misty it actually was! one minute you couldn't see your hand in front of you, the next it cleared slightly..

Interesting stuff. Definitely looks worth a look around some time.

Seem to remember visiting a quarry out that way a long time ago when studying Geology at college. The name seems familiar, have to look out my field note books!