Created by Neville Redvers-Higgins (Principal Project Officer for Oxford Archaeology during the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Scheme from 2000-2004 and 2006-2010), this spreadsheet collates research from a number of sources detailing what we know about the individual quarrymen of Combe Down. It is hoped this table of names will be useful to researchers of the history of Combe Down, underground stone quarrying, and family history. If you have any contributions to the table, please email info@museumofbathstone.org
You can download the spreadsheet here.
Last update: 5th June 2026
How to navigate the ‘Quarrymen All Sources Table’
Due to the size of the spreadsheet, it is recommended to use CTRL+F to search for names.
The quarrymen table lists each original source entry and uses different background colours for easy reference. Individuals may add data at a later time, using extra colours to track the origins of each source.
A single row space separates each subsequent dated source when they can be attributed to the same individual. A triple row spacing separates known individuals and also, when there is doubt, matches a source to just one person.
A triple row spacing has been left between different individuals and those family members sharing the same name, especially as the first-born son will often share his father’s name. The triple line spacing has been used to separate multiple identical names, listed in any given Census year, that have different ages and/or listed addresses, for instance, the multiple listings for ’William Williams’.
The Census occupation listing for ‘Labourer’, not specifically otherwise listed as ‘quarry’ or ‘stone’ Labourer, has also been listed by NRH in 2026. The listing ‘Labourer’, unless specifically listed as agricultural or otherwise, was likely to have also included those who worked in the quarrying industry at some time, given that Combe Down was a Quarrying village.
CONTENT WARNING:- Some of the information on the table may contain distressing and graphic descriptions of serious Accidents and Deaths, especially within the corresponding Coroner’s reports.
About the Quarrymen Names ‘All Sources’ Table
The author of this document, Neville Redvers-Higgins (NRH), worked as the Principal Project Officer for Oxford Archaeology during the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Scheme from 2000-2004 and 2006-2010. The archaeological survey and monitoring programme was in place to record the historical quarrying underground landscape in advance of the Combe Down Quarries being infilled and stabilised with foamed concrete.
As part of the recording programme, a survey of the underground graffiti was developed, in part recording the names of quarrymen and later visitors, and any social aspects and historical significance therein.
The Quarrymen table was first created to list the names of individual quarrymen and other visitors that appeared in graffiti within the Combe Down underground Stone quarries.
The quarrymen table first listed the names collected by David Pollard during the first archaeological works conducted for the Bath and North-East Somerset Council during his ‘Historical And Archaeological Assessment of the Combe Down Quarries Now Known As Firs And Byfield Mine’, Sept 1994. In addition, David personally also conducted many years of research into the Bath Stone quarrying industry and associated public and privately held records.
David Pollard kindly shared a list of quarrymen, quarry owners, and others connected with Combe Down’s quarrying history. His research also included the 1899–1900 Combe Down Post Office Directory, which records all households in Combe Down during those years. Before most roads were given house numbers, this directory served as the main address record: some cottage rows had names, and only some houses were numbered.
His research from the study of the local historical newspapers for quarrying references formed the main body of this list. local crime reporting, quarrying names from local elections, accidents and deaths Newspaper and coroner reports the Inspector of Mines reports into deaths and accidents; The Annual lists of Mines which listed the type of quarry or mine, its owner and the number of persons employed; and the HM Inspector of Mines Annual Reports.
David freely shared his knowledge and expertise on Bath Stone. During regular accompanied trips underground with the Oxford Archaeology team during the early years of the Stabilisation Scheme, he explained the various quarrying techniques and practises used underground at Combe Down and continued to take many photographs. The original images from the 1994 assessment and his subsequent visits in the early 2000s have been generously shared with the Bath Stone Museum by his wife Nina Roberts. The photographs have been archived, and many have subsequently been exhibited in the museum space.
Additional names listed in 2010, including the Combe Down quarrymen, masons, and quarry masters/owners, were transcribed from the research notes of Peter Addison, author of ‘Around Combe Down’, 1998. Peter Addison’s handwritten research notes were from the 1841, 51, 61, 71, 81 and 1891 Census records of Combe Down and the parishes of Widcombe & Lyncombe.
He listed the quarrymen’s addresses and the household occupants, including any spouses, sons and daughters, extended family members, and also any servants and lodgers within the census record data.
Rosmary Simonds and the Combe Down Heritage Society (CDHS) digitally copied and kindly provided copies of the notes during the 1990s. Rosemary Simmons and the (CDHS) gathered more names from the Census and Bath Directory listings during the early 2000s and have also been listed separately.
In 2025, the list was expanded to include details about all family members, as well as lodgers and servants. Whereas before the list only included names from the underground quarry graffito for direct reference to those residing in the Combe Down quarrying village above.
Further entries were also listed from Peter Addison’s census notes to incorporate a wider range of labourer occupations, not just those previously listed specifically as ‘quarry’ or ‘stone’ labourers. The term ‘Labourer,’ unless specified as ‘Agricultural’, ‘Garden’, ‘Building’ or similar, often referred to quarry workers who may have worked in the quarries near Combe Down village.
The ‘Quarrymen All Sources’ table has been expanded following the availability of the Kew Records Office On-line newspaper records that can be interrogated by individual name and subject searches. Listing also includes 2026 newspaper articles at the Kew Records Office under the following searches: ‘Combe Down’, ‘Odd Down’, Claverton Down’ ’Bath’ + Quarry’; ‘CD + Quarryman ‘; ‘CD+ Mason’; ‘CD + Quarrymaster’.
Further listings from other Combe Down related publications are ongoing, for instance, David Pollard’s Bath Stone in ‘Digging Bath Stone, A Quarry and Transportation History’; Dick Irving, ‘A History of the Byfield Mine’, containing his research into the owners of the quarries at Byfield, Combe Down. Other works undertaken by Dr Lynn Willies, Mining consultant during his research for the Stabilisation Scheme, and author of the publication ‘FINISHED LABOUR OF A THOUSAND HANDS’, Oxford Archaeology Monograph, 2011.
It is hoped that from the foundations of this Bath Stone research, further collaboration and contributions with the (CDHS), Dr Dick Irving directly, and the Prior to Now Trust, started by the late Richard Addison, and other volunteers, will grow the list of names from the additional later Census Records, and add more information about individuals already reported on within earlier publications.
The list at this stage still has large gaps in the individuals who have contributed towards and shaped the Bath Stone Industry. The list will then be a better foundation for future expansion, before more names and stories are added from local historical and interest groups, as well as individual family research. NRH 2026