Hermitage Quarry sits discretely in the middle of the 600 acre privately owned Hermitage
Estate, a working farm.
2010 heralds 20 years of quarrying at Hermitage, extracting Kentish Ragstone and
supplying high quality aggregate and stone to maintain Kent’s historic building traditions
over the past 2000 years.
In the last 20 years, 74 acres (30 hectares) of Hermitage Farm have been quarried.
40 acres (16 hectares) have so far been reinstated to productive agricultural land outstripping the yields of the original pasture.
Over a quarter of a million native trees and shrubs have been planted as hedges, copse and woodland, introducing a vastly increased wildlife population.
Today, Hermitage Quarry produces some 700,000 tonnes per year with the ability to increase production to one million tonnes per year should demand require. The product range includes everything from basic materials, through sub-base and capping layers, rock armour, walling and gabion stone to premium grade single sized washed aggregates and sands.
At the present rate of working, supplies will be exhausted within 4 to 5 years. If the
company is to continue and the essential demands of the county met, new reserves need
to be found.
There can be no disputing the fact that our built environment requires construction
materials; everything from houses to schools, factories to offices and shops. Similarly the
roads and infrastructure that go hand in glove with those developments requires
construction materials and in the south-east in particular, where there is an acute shortage
of housing. It would be naive to believe that there is not an on-going long-term demand
that, if not satisfied from local sources would be imported into the County over long
distances adding to cost, availability and environmental damage. This could hardly be
classed as a sustainable solution to the problem.
'2010 heralds 20 years of quarrying at Hermitage, extracting Kentish Ragstone and supplying high quality aggregate and stone...'
We believe there is a real need for new ragstone reserves to maintain supplies into the local and regional economy. In submitting our future plans we can demonstrate an overriding need, not just for the development but also the need for the products which it supplies and the service that it provides.