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Copthill Quarry

Disused and flooded quarry on the outcrop of the whin sill at Cowshill. The quarry was opened up in 1895 by Octavius Monkhouse who was the Innkeeper at the nearby Cowshill Inn and son of the local minister. The quarry is one of two whinstone quarries in Weardale, the other is at Stanhope, and rock was carted from the quarry to Wearhead railway station and from there down the dale for use in construction projects.
About 50 men worked the quarry in the early days and as it developed permission was obtained to demolish first the vicarage and then the church itself. Now only the graveyard remains, above the quarry, north west of Copthill Farm.
By 1926 the quarry was in financial difficulties and closed down but a group of local men formed the Cowshill Quarry Company and this new company took over and continued the work up until final closure in 1943.
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