Post by Dave on Feb 24, 2019 14:04:56 GMT
Long Quarry Drone Mission 24th February 2019
I think we have all been to Ansteys Cove and looked across to what must be the most beautiful rock formation in Torbay. I am referring to what is known locally as Long Quarry Point. Until recently I was unaware that was the name of this rock formation and had never given a thought to what might be behind it.
I was born in Newton Abbot and my childhood was spent expolroing such places as Bradley and Milber Woods, even Coombe Cellars and cycle rides to Dartmoor. I have spent many times walking over Walls Hill and when younger down to Redgate Beach and around the walkway that was once there to Ansteys Cove, never knowing that over the cliff edge of Walls Hill was an old disused quarry site.
It has got me now wondering if Long Quarry Point is how nature made it, or was its appearance changed due to all the limestone that was quarried there. The earliest pictures I can find taken from Redgate Beach show Long Quarry Point looking much the same as it does today, but I do wonder how the whole cliff face must have looked before it was quarried.
During the Victorian era, the limestone at Long Quarry was quarried and used to build the grandest houses and civic buildings in Torquay. Some of the limestone was of such a quality it was used for marble, which was loved by the wealthy Victorians who lived in the developing upmarket resort. One would imagine that a great deal of material must have been taken from that site and greatly change how it once looked.
The cliffs are Devonian limestone dating back 350-400 million years. The most precise estimate puts these cliffs at around 370-390 million years old. Did the cliff face that is now a football pitch length from the sea, once touch it? If so it is possible the side of the quarry that faces Ansteys Cove could have also had limestone removed from it.
At the top of the cliffs on Walls Hill, which is a limestone plateau. Some 2,500 years ago this was an Iron Age fortification, a headland fort where tribal groups would have retreated at times of threat, but I am not sure if there is any evidence on the site still remaining.
Before 1909 the Torquay Golf Club used Walls Hill as their golf coarse and one wonders how many golf balls ended up flying over the cliffs and into the sea. I wonder what other uses it may have had in much earlier times.
I had looked at the possibility of getting down into Long Quarry, while it is possible it seems you must have a good head for heights as the path down to it is on the edge of the cliff and rather dangerous to use.
Not something I think I would try and do on my own and so the only answer was to send the drone out over the cliff edge. Being new to drone flying I am still building up my trust of the drone I own and therefore did not send out as far as I really wanted to. From my location it did look much further away than it actually was, but I was still happy with the shots I took.
The first two pictures are ones I took last year of Long Quarry Point from Ansteys Cove, all the rest were taken today.
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