Cliff top stone Quarry nr Whitehaven George Washington MT Vernon American President DJI Mavic Mini

Cliff top red sandstone Quarry on the coastal walk between Whitehaven and St Bees with some very interesting history.

Historical information quoted from current owners website

http://www.moorhouseandsons.co.uk/ind...



The Piazza at Mount Vernon

In 1773 George Washington made plans for additions to each end of Mount Vernon, the house on the Hunting Creek Plantation which his father had built, and which he had acquired on the death of his elder half brother Lawrence. During his absence as commander-in-chief of the continental army his distant kinsman Lund Washington acted as manager of the estate and continued the improvements the general had begun. According to Lund Washington's accounts the piazza was erected in 1777, but there was considerable delay in finding a suitable material for the floor. The general wrote to a gentleman in Philadelphia who was experimenting with concrete, then in July 1784 to George Rumney, a merchant ship-owner of Whitehaven," and would esteem it as a particular favour if Mr Rumney would make the following enquiries as soon as convenient after his arrival in England; the terms on which the best kind of Whitehaven flagstone black and white in equal quantities could be delivered at the generals landing .the stone was to be 2 and a half ins, thick or thereabouts and exactly a foot square each kind."

The flagstones were imported from England and laid in 1786. By 1914 the floor was in poor condition. It was known that the flagstones had been imported from England, but evidently no-one troubled to consult the general's diaries and correspondence to discover the exact source. A fragment of broken stone was sent to the geological museum, South Kensington and identified without difficulty as coming from a sandstone quarry at St Bees, worked at that time by a Mr McKay. 1500 flags of the same shape and size were sent out to Mt Vernon, and the piazza was restored to its original condition.

The most recent restoration of the piazza took place in 1997, when several of the worn and broken pavers were replaced again with new pavers imported from Whitehaven, England (the very same quarry that had supplied the original stones)