Old Ham Quarry

Not so far from us today, with this Somerset subject—a poetic rendition of the quarry at Ham Hill by Victorian painter Alfred Tidey (1808–1892). Whilst we're used to the Bath and Cotswold stone near us in Bradford on Avon, travel south in Somerset and the stone becomes warmer and darker in colour, the distinctive 'hamstone' used both throughout small villages and in grand examples such as Montacute House near Yeovil. Hamstone can be readily sawn and dressed and as a consequence is also woven into the fabric of many medieval churches in Devon, Dorset and western Somerset in the form of door and window surrounds.

Through the 19th century activities expanded from 24 small quarries operating on Ham Hill to upwards of 200 family-run quarries and masonry businesses operating on site.

Painted by Tidey in the latter decades of the 19th century, however, here the artist's vision is one of youthful recreation and exploration—a young figure scampers up the rockside overgrown with foliage—not of Victorian industry. Titled 'The Old Ham Stone Quarry', it celebrates the quarry not as a place of industrial innovation but rather as a picturesque site of an ancient practice—dating back to Roman times at Ham Hill—that links human civilisation and the very earth itself.