Quarry worker's pick (1)

This pick was discovered in a disused and flooded section of Locharbriggs Quarry, Dumfries by divers from Dumfries Sub Aqua club. Part of the wooden shaft is still intact.   The Permian and Triassic sandstones of the Dumfries area, particularly those from the quarries at Locharbriggs, were widely used as building stones.  At the peak of the sandstone quarrying industry in the late 1800s almost 200,000 tons of sandstone were being quarried each year.  Although this stone was used locally, large amounts were sent out of the area.  Many of the late Victorian buildings of Glasgow and Edinburgh were built in Dumfries sandstone, as were the 'brownstones' of New York.