QUARRY
Simmonds Hill (also previously known as Simons or Symmonds Hill) Quarries existed long before Manley Knoll.
There are records suggesting that quarrying for the unique ‘Manley White Stone’ goes as far back as the Roman era, who liked the unusually hard sandstone for memorial stones. Manley ‘whitestone’ was sourced from two major quarries in Manley, initially from Manley Quarry (lower quarry), and the Simmonds Hill quarry (upper quarry) now located on the grounds of Manley Knoll.
By the end of the 19th century, the lower quarry at Manley was well established, and had been providing the much desired ‘White Stone’ to projects such as the Gaoler’s House and Colonnade at the front of Chester Hall, as well as the gaol at the Castle of Chester, the New Market in Chester, New Customs House at Liverpool Docs, Eccleston and Eaton Hall.
By the 1830s, Simmonds Hill quarry had a toll road for access (Manley road outside Manley Knoll today), and its quarries were a well established source of local employment. The site of the old ‘Toll Bar’ is on the small lay by on Manley Road, on the approach to Manley Knoll. Small rail systems were in place to allow pony driven carts to recover stone from the quarries to the road, before being distributed further afield.
The initial commercial phase of the quarries at Simmonds Hill came to an end in 1851, with the renowned ‘White Stone’ being long depleted. The quarries at Simmonds Hill were reopened and reused between 1871 and 1881, most likely for the purposes of supplying great quantities of stone for building the railways at that time.
Following the end of this period, the quarries fell into disuse, and appear to have only been used for local purposes, before being purchased as part of the Manley Knoll Estate. The final use of the remaining quarry rail systems were used through the 1880s to transport marl fertilizer to the nearby fields around Manley Knoll.
The remaining quarry faces are now used to create the enclosed spaces of the Quarry Garden. Look closely to see hand chisel marks. The Quarry Garden benefits from the sheltered micro climate the walls create, perfect for growing plants such as the Antarctica tree ferns.
Peter Turner was a local diarist, who was born on 17th October 1825 and died 8th September 1906. He kept an account in note form of many activities, one of them being cockfighting.
The top of Simmonds Hill provided a natural bowl for the cockfight. The youths would sit around the cockpit and watch the progress of each fight. Several of the local landowners encouraged the sport, even though it was illegal, and some paid the penalty by being prosecuted.