Aislaby Quarry

The quarry workings at Aislaby are 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Whitby,[1] and were known to have been in existence by the 11th century, as the majority of Whitby Abbey was constructed of stone quarried from the area.[2] The West and East Piers at Whitby were faced with 6 tonnes (6.6 tons) blocks of Aislaby stone.[3]

Besides being used for building purposes, some of the stone from Aislaby was used in decorative work such as crosses used in churches.[4] Examples of this stone worked decoratively have been found in churches the area including Whitby Abbey, Lythe, Church of St Mary, Lastingham, and Hovingham.[5][6][7] The Easby Cross, which dates to the early 9th century, has been matched to the same "medium-grained deltaic sandstone traditionally produced in the Aislaby quarries of Eskdale, near Whitby".[8] It is theorised that pack horses took sections of the stone west from Aislaby to the valley of the River Swale, but it is unknown who paid for the cross.[9]

In May 2002, the quarry was re-opened to allow new stone to be quarried to provide repairs for structures which used Aislaby Stone in the first place, such as the east pier at Scarborough.[10] It was again reopened in the 2010s, specifically to supply stone for a renovation programme on the East and West Piers at Whitby.[11] The quarry was registered in 2020 as Eskdale stone, working sandstone from the Saltwick and Cloughton formations of Jurassic sandstone.[12]

The structures listed below were built with stone quarried at Aislaby (not all structures are entirely of Aislaby stone);