| Beer Quarry Caves | |
|---|---|
 The interior of Beer Stone Quarry | |
| Location | Beer, Devon, UK |
| Geology | Limestone |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Access | Public tourist attraction |
Beer Quarry Caves is a man-made limestone underground complex located about a mile west of the village of Beer, Devon,[1] and the main source in England for Beer stone. The tunnels resulted from 2,000 years of quarrying Beer stone, which was particularly favoured for cathedral and church features such as door and window surrounds because of its colour and workability for carving. Stone from the quarry was used in the construction of several of southern England's ancient cathedrals and a number of other important buildings as well as for many town and village churches,[2] and for some buildings in the United States. Extraction was particularly intense during the Middle Ages, but continued until the 1920s. An adit to another set of workings can be seen from the South West Coast Path east of Branscombe, having been exposed by a landslip in the late 18th century. The quarry is part of the Jurassic Coast,[3] and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
- ^ De La Beche, Henry Thomas (1839). "Chalk and Green Sand". Report on the geology of Cornwall, Devon and west Somerset. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 240.
- ^ Rawlins, F.I.G. (1957). "The Cleaning of Stonework". Studies in Conservation. 3 (1): 1–23. doi:10.2307/1504930.
- ^ "Dorset and East Devon Coast". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 2001. Retrieved 16 November 2010.