Quarry Bends

Quarry Bends (Clarks Quarry) Manx: Close e Volley – Enclosure of the Old Curragh Road[1][2] is situated adjacent to the 20th Milestone road-side marker on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey, in the parishes of Ballaugh and Kirk Christ Lezayre in the Isle of Man.

Quarry Bends
The A3 Castletown to Ramsey Road approaching Quarry Bends, between Ballaugh and Sulby, Isle of Man.
Coordinates54°18′57.9″N 4°30′39.7″W
Builtc.1600, c.1815, 1985
Location of Quarry Bends in Isle of Man

Location

Quarry Bends is the site of the Curraghs Wildlife Park and also the nearby Gob-y-Volley Forestry Plantation and the former Isle of Man Forestry Board, Close-e-Volley Depot and the nearby Ballavolley Quarry.

The wetland enclosures at Close-e-Volley and Ballavolley are part of the Ballaugh Curragh (Norse: Mirescog – Mire of the Turbary)[3] of 1,000 acres (405 ha) in area.[4]

A3 Castletown to Ramsey Road

The primary A3 road was part of "the long round," the former journey made by horse-drawn carriers from Castletown to Ramsey. The Ballaugh and Lezayre parish sections of the Ramsey old road before the draining of the remains of the post-glacial Lake Andreas[5] (c.1500–1600)[6] and the building of the Sulby Straight (c.1815),[7] was the A13 Sandygate Road adjacent to the boundary of the Curragh's wetland along with the tertiary U7 Old Sulby Road, C29 Old Windmill Road and the B9 Ballacrye Road.[8]

Curragh wildlife park

The Curragh's (Manx pronunciation: [kǫrək]) were traditionally a wetlands area for growing hay for grazing including attempts in the 1930s to grow New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax and Phormium colensoi). The wetlands area was purchased in 1963 by the Isle of Man Forestry, Lands and Mines Board and the Curraghs Wildlife Park of 211 Acres (85 ha) at Quarry Bends and was opened by the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man, Sir Ronald Garvey on 23 July 1965.[9] The Curragh's Wildlife Park is now part of the Isle of Man Department of Enterprise and the Wildlife Park includes from 1992 The Orchid Line, a multi-gauge miniature railway of 1,750 feet in length operated by the Manx Model Engineering Society.

Former railway-line

In 1879, the Manx Northern Railway built a narrow gauge railway from St.John's to Ramsey which ran parallel to the A3 road from Kirk Michael to Sulby Bridge. The railway line crossed a number of minor roads as it passed through the Curraghs wetlands at Ballacrye, Ballavolley and Cooilbane. A small railway siding was built in 1882 to serve the Clarks stone quarry at Ballavolley, crossing the primary A3 road at Close-e-Volley. Later renamed Quarry Bends, the line running to a small loading wharf and railway siding to the main Ramsey to St. John's railway line.[10]

Motor-sport heritage

The Quarry Bends complex of bends was part of the 37.50 Mile Four Inch Course for the RAC Tourist Trophy automobile races held in the Isle of Man between 1906 and 1922.[11]

In 1911, the Four Inch Course for automobiles was first used by the Auto-Cycling Union for the Isle of Man TT motorcycle races.[12] This included Quarry Bends and the course later became known as the 37.73 mile Isle of Man TT Mountain Course which has been used since 1911 for the Isle of Man TT Races and from 1923 for the Manx Grand Prix races.[13]

Road improvements

Extensive road widening and road profiling occurred during 1984/1985 at Quarry Bends by the Isle of Man Highway and Transport Board with the removal of trees and the creation of a road-side picnic-area.[14][15]

  • TT racers approaching Quarry Bends in 2003

Sources
  1. Place Names of The Isle of Man – Da Ny Manninee Dooie Volume Two. Sheading of Michael: (Kirk Michael, Ballaugh and Jurby) page 143 'Ballaugh by George Broderick – Türbingen ; Niemeyer NE:HST (1995) Manx Place- Name Survey, Max Niemeyer Verlag Türbingen ISBN 3-484-40138-9 (Gesamtwerk) 3-484-40130-3 (Band 2) Druck und Eiband: Weihert-Druck GmbH Darmstadt.
  2. Place Names of the Isle of Man by John Kneen MA page 512 (1970) Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh The Scolar Press
  3. Place Names of the Isle of Man by John Kneen MA page 513 (1970) Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh The Scolar Press
  4. An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Isle of Man by David T.Webber Revised by Frank Cowin and F.J.Radcliffe page 45 (1997) The Manx Experience ISBN 1-873120-25-7
  5. Isle of Man: Celebrating a Sense of Place page 17 & 48 Vaughan Robinson & Danny McCarroll Liverpool University Press (1990) ISBN 0853232962
  6. Manx Antiquities or remarks on The Present Condition of the Antiquarian Remains of the Isle of Man, especially those situated around its coast line page 10 to 16 Chapter II.- A VISIT TO THE CURRAGH Robert Patterson M. D., F.R.C.P.E., F.S.S.A (1862) St Andrews University Magazine.
  7. Place Names of The Isle of Man – Da Ny Manninee Dooie Volume Three. Sheading of Ayre: (Kirk Andreas, Kirk Bride and Kirk Christ Lezayre) page 469 Kirk Christ Lezayre by George Broderick – Türbingen; Niemeyer NE:HST (1997) Manx Place- Name Survey, ISBN 3-484-40138-9 (Gesamtwerk) 3-484-40131-1 (Band 3) ©Max Niemeyer Verlag Türbingen Druck: Weihert-Druck GmbH Darmstadt Einband: Siegfried Geiger, Ammerbuch. " …was always called by the old people as ‘the Big Street’")
  8. HM Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheet 95 ISLE OF MAN (Survey 1992) Scale 1:50,000
  9. An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Isle of Man by David T.Webber Revised by Frank Cowin and F.J.Radcliffe page 46 (1997) The Manx Experience ISBN 1-873120-25-7
  10. The British Narrow Gauge Railway No 2c – The Isle of Man Railway Volume III An Outline History of the Isle of Man Railway by James I.C.Boyde page 52 (1996) (1st Edition) The Oakwood Press ISBN 978-0-85361-479-1
  11. TT Pioneers – Early Car Racing in the Isle of Man page 22 Robert Kelly, Mercury Asset Management (1996) (1st Edition) The Manx Experience, The Alden Press ISBN No 1 873120 61 3
  12. TT Special page 2 edited by G.S. Davison Thursday 9 June 1938
  13. The History of the Manx Grand Prix page 7, 8, 9 by Bill Snelling Amulree Publishing(1998) Manx Heritage Foundation ISBN 1 901508 04 8
  14. Government Circular NO 314/84 Road Traffic Act 1963 Isle of Man Highway and Transport Board (1984)
  15. The Observer page 22 Sunday 4 June 1989
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