British Cave Research Association field guide to the Bath Stone quarries, Box, Wiltshire

The venue for the 2016 British Cave Research Association Cave Science Symposium Field Trip is the underground ‘Bath Stone’ quarries around Box, near Corsham, Wiltshire (Figure 1). The aim of the field trip is to examine the cambering and gulling, gull caves and karstic features observed in the quarries. The underground quarries at Box lie at the southern end of the Cotswold Hills, on the southern side of the By Brook valley, a tributary if the River Avon. This valley has incised though the Great Oolite Group, a sequence of Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) limestones and mudstones. The underground quarries are developed within the Chalfield Oolite Formation. This is an excellent building stone, as it can be sawn by hand in any direction as a ‘freestone’ which then hardens on exposure to air, rather than having a distinct cleavage like slate.