Mine Train quarry is sited in the heart of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, an area rich in Britain's heritage of mining and quarrying.
The quarry has been worked primarily for the mineral reserves of high quality Iron ore, since pre-Roman times and particulalry during the Victorian era until 1947.
Pictured below is a tunnel opening on the quarry face where an iron ore vein has been worked.
The ore was extracted via a system of joined vertical shafts and horizontal tunnels. In the mid 1970's the Gloucester Specielogical Society surveyed the workings to produce a fully detailed map of their extent.
Records also indicate that stone was also extracted for building. The present operators have worked the quarry since the early 1970's.
The Sandstone is of the Pennant Grit Series of the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic era (280 - 350 million years). It occurs as massive bedded blockstone in beds up to 4 metres, alternating with layers of fractured walling stone and fissile paving stone. The red colour derives from the veins of iron ore which are found in some of the vertical joints.