A QUARRY which supplies half of Dorset’s crushed stone for construction projects is celebrating its centenary.

Material from Swanworth Quarry in Worth Matraers is used as a sub-base for building schemes, rock armour on sea defence works and as decorative chippings.

It is owned by Suttle Stone Quarries, a division of the Suttles group which employs 120 people locally, including 55 at the quarries.

Although the quarry has changed hands several times, four generations of the Samways family have worked there since 1921.

Thomas Samways worked as a digger in the early 1920s and his son Pete worked at the quarry for more than 40 years as a shovel driver, along with his brothers. Today, third generation Carly and her daughter Lauren work in the quarry’s weighbridge office, sending crushed stone to trade and residential customers.

Carly said: “My family has worked at the quarry for 100 years – the quarry is in our family’s blood. I love working here. It has seen a few changes over the years, although when Suttles took it over in 2011, they woke it up again. It is a real privilege to work here.”

The Suttle family has worked in the natural stone and quarrying business on the Isle of Purbeck since the 1920s and bought Swanworth Quarry in 2011.

Suttles is working towards becoming carbon neutral and has invested in reducing its CO2 emissions by around 60 tonnes per year. This includes investing in a growing fleet of 19 electric and hybrid vehicles and plant; upgrading the quarry’s crusher from diesel to an electric-powered engine; and installing a solar panel system that powers the quarry’s workshop and crusher.

Suttles has provided crushed stone to a series of high-profile projects in the area, including Compass Point Housing in Swanage the Pierhead development in Swanage, Priests’ Way regeneration in Langton Matravers, Durlston Country Park Learning Centre and Footpath renewal in Swanage and the Dorset Innovation Park at Winfrith.

Suttles’ director John Suttle said: “As well as supplying around 50 per cent of Dorset’s crushed stone, we are also keen to support community and charity initiatives, too. For example, we donated materials for the extension at Corfe Village Hall, as well as stone sub-base for Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Greengage project, too. Suttles also sponsors and helps to organise the annual Big Night Out, a local night of clubbing for people with learning disabilities, attended by over 400 people from around Dorset.”

The quarry started as a two-man underground quarry called Sheepsleights around the early 1920s.

It became Worth Quarries Limited in 1923, with a head office in Bournemouth, and produced broken blocks used in the foundations for roads, as well as crushed and graded chippings and road surfaces.

One large contract in 1924 was to supply material for the foundation of the lower valley road between Corfe Castle and Coombe Junction.

Swanworth Quarries Limited took over the site in 1933, producing 600 tons per day at its peaks.

Tarmac Roadstone Lmiited took control of the quarry in 1980, increasing its output to a peak of 450,000 tonnes a year in 1985.