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The Stonesfield slate mines were located in the village of the same name in Oxfordshire and they have generally been assumed to date to at least Medieval times; indeed it has often been stated that Stonesfield Slates were used in the Roman period, though there is no evidence for this (Arkell 1947: 129). In actual fact, the process of splitting the 'green' rock with frost (quarried rocks were wetted and covered with earth until a hard winter frost split them) may not have been known until the end of the sixteenth century, and this therefore may be the earliest date for its usage (Arkell 1947: 131). The old workings covered a comparatively small area (an ellipse roughly 2 miles by 1 mile) and the shafts themselves were 60-65 ft. deep in the village; the slate-bearing strata vary from 6ft to 2 = ft (Arkell 1947: 132, 139). The last working pit was Spratt's Barn, owned by the Duke of Marlborough, which supplied Blenheim; it closed in 1909.
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