Machen Quarry and Longhouse

The weather has been dry until this evening when it started to rain again. When will it ever stop? I took advantage of the lack of rain and wind to take an aerial photo of our local quarry and medieval longhouse ruin that is in the field alongside it. You can see the farm fields at the top of the picture are flooded. The medieval Longhouse is at the bottom of the picture, with a close up in the extra.

This very large quarry was established before 1875 serving a number of small limekilns. The expansion of the quarry appears to be post-war. It was in regular rail and lorry use to 2013, but is almost defunct, now just supplying tarmac.

Machen lonhouse probably dates to the 1600's and has long fallen into decay. There is only a farm track/footpath leading to it. It is called a longhouse, a term originating in Wales when the 'longhouse' was literally described as 'ty hir' or again literally, 'house long'.


In its basic form the longhouse is of two rooms divided by a cross passage. To one side of the passage ('above') was the hall where there was a fire and where the men and women lived. On the other side of the passage ('below') were the cattle in their shippon, heads to the outside walls and a dung channel between them with a drain hole at the lower end. Longhouses were more often than not built lengthwise down a gentle slope and this helps to explain the use of the words 'above' and 'below' the passage. Cattle and men shared the same entrance into the passage with a wall or screen on the upper side through which a door entered into the hall. On the lower side the entrance to the shippon was often open.