23 August 2016
Last updated at 11:19
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Terrafirma share the Hidden Legacy of Mineral Extraction in Greater London and Surrey
We used Terrafirma's unique mineral extraction map, Terrasmart, to uncover the hidden legacy of mineral extraction in Greater London and Surrey.
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In April of 2012 a sinkhole opened up in a residential area beneath the main A2 road in Blackheath London. |
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The footprint of Greater London as it now is, has been subjected to considerable resource exploitation, both in scale and duration.
Servicing the major demand for building materials as the City developed and expanded, chalk mining has occurred for facilitating historical production of bricks, tiles and other clay-wares, as well as to enable lime and cement manufacture. Coupled with usage in past agriculture, the result of this is the excavation of amongst the largest, most spatially extensive extensive chalk mining to be found in the UK.
Surrey has experienced prolonged, and varied mining activity, with a number of resources exploited, often at significant scale. From the Roman era the sandstone deposits have been worked at locations across the North Downs, being utilised for building materials, and as Firestone and Hearthstone, until the last underground quarries ceased in the 20th Century. Mining for sand has also occurred, whilst chalk has been gleaned from sub-surface in the county’s northernmost limits, and ironstone, as part of the Weald Iron basin, removed in the south. Similarly Fullers’ earth has witnessed considerable extraction during the 19th and 20th Centuries.
You can read more about the history of mineral extraction in your area by visiting www.minesearches.co.uk/terrasmart
The full range of mineral extraction reports from Terrafirma is now available as part of our Complete Search Service. For more information email jeremydorkins@propertysearchgroup.co.uk or call 01483 761500
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