Location 351
Location #351 - Silica Sand Pit
Map 11
- Address
- Tom's Gully
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Area -
Tom's Gully -
Description -
Location #351 - Silica Sand Pit Open face on the northern side of terrace, south side of Tom's Gully Road, at the intersection with the Bannockburn Nevis Road.
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Still Standing -
No -
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This area is now covered with topsoil. -
Construction Details -
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Location Type -
Mine
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View Location on Map -
Interested Parties
The table below shows the groups of people that had an interest in this property, either as owners, residents, tenants or shareholders. Clicking on the 'Details' link will display a list of the individuals in the group along with any known historical information about them.
| Group | Date | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | c1918 - c1950 | Alexander Robertson | Details |
Notes
The table below shows any historical notes about the location.
| Note | Date | Short Description | Note Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3202 | c1918 | Location of the pit. | Tom's Gully - intersection of Gully Road and the Bannockburn Nevis Road. Situated in the northern face of the terrace on the south side of Tom's Gully. This site may well have been an early coal mine adit, maybe J Smith or W R Parcell. The site is now covered with topsoil and no early records of the workings have come to the authors notice at this time. |
| 3203 | c1918 | Description - Quartz - Silica Sand. | The quartz sand is from Manuherikia group sediments. It is loose, fine and fairly pure. There are sufficient impurities present in the form of fine-grained, rather weathered mica, and probably clay found as an extremely thin coating on some of the quartz grains. This rules out the sands as a raw material for optical glass or high quality glassware. However, it could still be used for ordinary glass manufacture, although a washing plant would be required to remove the clay or iron stained horizons. |
| 3204 | c1918 - c1950 | Alexander (Sandy) Robertson worked the pit periodically between 1918 and 1950. | Alexander (Sandy) Robertson worked the pit periodically between 1918 and 1950. Samples were sent to Benhar for trials in the glazing of earthernware. Unfortunately the sand was found to be unsuitable for glazing. The main use for the sand was found to be for sand soap and for foundary moulding. The sand was mined by hand and bagged in flour sacks, and transported to Cromwell railhead on Ted Lawrence's two ton Chev truck. The sand was railed to Dunedin where the McLeods Soap Factory used it in the manufacture of sand soap. |
Images
The table below shows a list of images related to the location. Click on 'View Image' to display more details about the image, and to view the image.
| Image Id | Source | Date | Short Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2411 | Paul Crump - Bannockburn | as at 2002 | Coal Mine - Shepherds Creek No 1 (location #240) | View Image |