Preserving buildings for posterity
Dartmoor has for centuries been a place of industry, and the working of stone dates from prehistoric times. On western Dartmoor, Merrivale Quarry, which closed in 1997, was the last working granite quarry on the moor, providing stone for buildings, pavement kerbs and memorials in the cities and towns of the South West and beyond. It began life in 1875 and there was once a terrace of twelve cottages on the site, all occupied by quarry workers and their families. A Wesleyan chapel (which still just survives) was erected in 1901 and used as a Sunday school, and later, as the mess hut. Towards the end of the 20th century the quarry provided granite for a war memorial on the Falkland Islands.
It’s not possible to understand Dartmoor without an appreciation of this activity and its importance for generations of skilled stonecutters and quarrymen. Yet, bizarrely, while relics of prehistoric and medieval people are considered to be national monuments, the remains of quarrying have often been perceived as eyesores. This is especially true of more recent structures, and in November 2017, three buildings associated with the last years of work at Merrivale Quarry were demolished by the Duchy of Cornwall.
The buildings were large bayed worksheds, once housing sophisticated machinery, reduced to robust and impressive skeletal frameworks of concrete and steel. The Dartmoor Society believes their loss is much to be regretted, as future generations will not be able to appreciate these tangible reminders of core Dartmoor life and work. These Merrivale buildings (or at least one of them) might have survived for decades without any maintenance, and remained as witnesses and markers of a particular and traditionally important way of life for the parents and grandparents of people who live on Dartmoor today. They might even have been brought back into use.
Every structure we admire about Dartmoor was modern once. The Dartmoor Society believes in preserving the educational and social value of recent buildings which, with rapid changes in society, grow in significance, historically and technologically, as each year goes by.
Tom Greeves, Chairman of The Dartmoor Society