About us
Blasting schedule
Extension
News
Liaison group
Community support
Careers

Demand for stone increased considerably during the 1870s as farming began to decline and quarrying provided a valuable source of income and employment, sustaining the local economy.

Today we extract around 1.8 million tonnes of aggregate a year from Tytherington quarry. The limestone is considered a nationally significant resource and is used to make ready-mixed and precast concrete products, as well as asphalt for use in road construction and maintenance. Tytherington is also one of the main suppliers of aggregates for HS2.

We are committed to being a good neighbour and actively support local initiatives and programmes which benefit the community and environment.

There are 16  employees and 21 permanent contractors based at Tytherington, plus many more in our supply chain and company support staff. We also work in close partnership with a number of conservation bodies to protect and enhance biodiversity at the site and regularly host school and college visits.

History

A small quarry was first started on the site of our Tytherington quarry, near Thornbury, in 1872. By 1880 the site was owned by the Tytherington Stone Company and a rail link was built eight years later taking around 60-65 rail trucks, each carrying 8 tonnes of stone, every weekend.

Grovesend quarry on the site was opened in 1902 due to demand for stone to build the Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth and around 850-895 tonnes of stone was taken directly to Avonmouth by rail.

The quarry shared the rail line with passenger trains, which meant stone could only be loaded on a Sunday when there were no passenger trains – a situation that continued until 1944 when the line was designated freight only.

Tytherington Stone Company was bought by Teign Valley Granite Co, which in turn became Roads Reconstruction Ltd and, after liquidation in the depression of the 1930s, Roads Reconstruction (1934) Ltd. It has been steadily absorbed into larger and larger companies: Amey Roadstone, ARC, Consolidated Goldfields and then, in 1988, Hanson.

Tytherington today

Tytherington quarry is around 57 hectares in size and comprises of two separate carboniferous limestone excavations: Woodleaze and Grovesend, which are linked by a tunnel. There is a third excavation, North Face, but this is no longer owned by Hanson.

The quarry was mothballed in 2008 due to the economic downturn but reopened in 2019 and now produces around 1.8 million tonnes of limestone aggregate each year. The quarry is linked to the national rail network via a tunnel under the M5 and supplies building products to our rail depots in Oxfordshire, London and the south east of England. With around 45% of the quarry’s output transported to customers by rail this saves more than 100 lorry movements a day, helping to cut carbon emissions, reduce road traffic and help towards improving air quality.

The site includes a range of habitats including small pockets of species-rich calcareous grassland, native hedgerows, small amounts of semi-natural woodland especially in the railway cutting designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) , young and middle-aged tree plantations established along the motorway and roadside screen banks, and agricultural fields. Peregrine falcons can routinely be seen and have previously nested at Tytherington. 

Contact us

For all enquiries, please 
email Tytheringtonquarryenquiries@uk.heidelbergmaterials.com or
call us on our freephone number 08001 601321.

Suppliers

To request information about how to become a supplier, complete the form below.

Complete a request form

Operations and blasting

Blasting usually takes place between one and two times a week at Tytherington. Blasts can take place between 11.00 – 16.00.  

Quarrying operations including crushing can take place between 06.00 – 21.00 Monday – Friday, and 07.00 – 13.00 on Saturdays, though on site maintenance work can continue all day on Saturdays.

Aggregate haulage takes place from 06.00, however HGVs servicing the on site asphalt plant may require 24 hr access in order to service road surfacing projects – including emergency repairs. Our haulier rules state that all HGVs entering and leaving the site must be fully sheeted.

Current proposals to extend the quarry

Making best use of existing mineral resources and securing future supplies

Tytherington quarry has been supplying much-needed building materials for use in the construction and maintenance of homes, schools, hospitals and roads for nearly 100 years, but operations are increasingly constrained. To make the most of the quarry’s existing reserves we are now seeking permission to extract additional limestone from two areas within its existing boundary.

Learn more

New doors make Alveston Jubilee Hall safer 

 Alveston Jubilee Hall has unveiled a new look following the installation of hardwood doors, improving the safety for many of the community groups that use the building, while respecting its Victorian heritage.

Read more

Helping Thornbury in Bloom bring biodiversity to the town

Our Tytherington quarry is delighted to support local horticultural group, Thornbury in Bloom, who recently represented the South West in the prestigious RHS Britain in Bloom national competition.

Read more

Tytherington quarry funds life-saving defibrillator

Residents of The Slad, near Tytherington now have quicker access to life-saving equipment, thanks to the installation of a new defibrillator funded by our Tytherington quarry.

Read more

Monument stones from Tytherington quarry add finishing touches to war memorial at Severn Beach

Our Tytherington quarry has donated three large monument stones for use in a local war memorial at Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire.

Read more

Blasting notifications

To keep our near neighbours informed about planned quarry blasts, we have introduced a free blast notification service for residents living close to Tytherington quarry.

Quarry blasting in the UK is highly regulated and extensive monitoring highlights that all blasts at Tytherington quarry are well within permitted limits. 

Read more

Digging up the past

The remains of 11 individual Thecodontosaurus – Britain’s oldest dinosaur – were discovered in the Woodleaze excavation in the 1970s. Dating from the late Triassic period (227-205 million years ago), Theocodontosaurus was about two metres long and one of the earliest plant-eating dinosaurs to exist in the world. At that time, Tytherington would have been a small limestone island with a tropical climate.

Liaison Group

We are keen to broaden the local membership of the group, so if you represent a local group and would like it to be considered for membership, please email us at: tytheringtonquarryenquiries@uk.heidelbergmaterials.com 

Constitution and terms of reference for group

Tytherington Quarry Community Liaison Committee Constitution and Terms of Reference 156.14 KB

Liaison Group Meetings

Tytherington Quarry Community Liaison Group Meeting 23 October 2025 - Minutes 587.36 KB Tytherington Quarry Community Liaison Group Meeting 24 July 2025 - Minutes 977.47 KB

Downloads

Site Biodiversity Action Plan

Site Biodiversity Action Plan - Tytherington Quarry 3.9 MB Tytherington Quarry Community Liaison Group Meeting October 2022 - Presentation Appendix 146.49 KB

Extension proposals

Document downloads

Our response to feedback received on our current operations 27-06-24 113.11 KB

Internet resources

Stay Safe…Stay Out of Quarries

Tytherington

Supporting the community

As a responsible operator, we want to play our part in supporting communities near our sites as well as protecting and enhancing the local environment.

We welcome planned school and college visits, host community open days and carry out a broad range of regular community support initiatives. In addition, local charities and community groups have benefitted from the donation of money, materials and time, through our employee volunteering days.

Our approach is to prioritise support for initiatives promoting:

  • Education, skills, and wellbeing
  • Protecting/enhancing the environment
  • Supporting biodiversity and sustainability
  • Promoting the community and heritage of the area

Assistance is prioritised to groups making applications from those based within a three-mile radius of our Tytherington quarry site. To make an application for funding, material donation and/or volunteer support, please tell us about your group and/or project, what type of support you are seeking and how your project’s aims dovetail with our support initiative goals set out above.

Request a donation

Complete this form to request a donation 

Recent beneficiaries of our local support programme include:

  • Tytherington Parish Council – Heidelberg Materials made a £900 donation towards  the village’s Platinum Jubilee celbrations which helped cover costs associated with marquee hire, printing of raffle tickets and raffle prizes.
  • Wotton Community Sports Foundation is to receive 350 tonnes of type one stone from Tytherington for use in the upgrade of the car park at Wotton Community PARC.
Request a donation

Careers

Working at Heidelberg Materials is about being part of One Team. We operate around 300 manufacturing sites in the UK and employ over 3,500 people in a wide range of roles from production workers, plant operators, technicians and drivers to sales, IT, engineering and finance managers.

We also provide opportunities for careers in the mineral products industry through various apprenticeship programmes, for example mobile plant operators, fitters, electricians and engineering technicians.

In addition, our higher-apprenticeship Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) programme for school leavers offers the first steps towards a varied career as well as the opportunity to secure valuable qualifications – earning while learning. Similarly, our graduate programme for specialists in engineering, geology, marketing or a STEM related discipline, offers a structured two-year programme based in a variety of locations across the UK.

For more on the range of opportunities at Heidelberg Materials UK, visit our careers website here .

Visit our careers website
Tytherington

Kickstart your career 

Our graduate management training programme and higher apprenticeship scheme provide the opportunity to embark on an exciting and rewarding career in the construction industry.

Our structured graduate management programme aims to develop the future leaders of our business by providing skills training in specific business lines and awareness of other areas across the company.

Our three-year higher apprenticeships allow you to earn while you learn and develop supervisor skills in a hand-on environment.

To find out more and apply visit our careers website and select the scheme you're interested in from the menu.