Waste Solutions and Homes win prestigious national ... - Hills Group

Students visitShorncoteQuarryGeography GCSE studies took a differentturn for students and teachers fromShipston High School near Stow-on-the-Wold when they visited ShorncoteQuarry to understand the benefits that arestored quarry could offer the localcommunity.Daniel Hougton, quarry manager atShorncote QuarryThe group of studentsand teachers were shownaround the site by quarrymanager Daniel Houghtonwho explained the processof extraction, from thestripping of topsoil, thesubsequent archaeologicalinvestigation followed bythe removal of the gravel.The students were also ableto see the restorationDaniel Houghton, quarry manager (in white hat) talking to thestudents and teachers from Shipston High Schoolprocess close up, where the underlying clay is pushed upby huge earth moving machinery to form the shape andsloping edges of what will eventually become a lake.They were then given a tour of the processing plantwhere the sand and gravel is sorted and graded ready fordispatch to various destinations depending on its end use.Daniel commented, “It was great to show the studentsaround the site. Through these visits we are able to givepeople a better understanding of the way Hills works.”Chinham Hill, FaringdonThe site will be managed by Mick Chivers,assistant quarry managerQuarry Products hassubmitted a planningapplication on landknown as Chinham Hill,adjacent to theexisting Bowling GreenFarm quarry complex.The proposeddevelopment will allowfor the extraction of300,000 tonnes of softsand over a six-yearperiod at an annual average extraction rate of approximately50,000 tonnes. The sand to be worked is fine and a palered/yellow colour, classified as ‘soft sand’ that has beenused by the building industry for many years.Hills has operated at Bowling Green Farm quarry, andadjoining Chinham Farm, since 1987 and the area is oneof the only soft sand providers in the southern part of theCounty of Oxfordshire.Chinham Hill represents the last workable part of thesand deposit in the vicinity, and if not for separateownership, would have been extracted many years ago.The proposal for extraction will use the existing quarry’sinfrastructure and access so that the last of this depositcan be worked.The site will be returned to agricultural use whenextraction is completed. This will include additionallandscape planting of a new hedge along the westernboundary and further woodland planting to increase theoverall size of the existing copse.intouch 13