Cannop Stone Works

The Forest of Dean Stone Firms Ltd and predecessors have been processing pennant sandstone from quarries at Bixhead for over 200 years. The Cannop stone works opened in 1901 by Messrs Turner & Sons of Cardiff. Until the 1950s the Bicslade tramroad brought stone down what was the last horse-worked plateway in the Forest. When I visited the stone works in 1993 it was still using the old reciprocating stone saws in the sheds on the right. Today the processing has been completely modernised with new wire and circular saws.