Like many other quarry’s, this was also a communal quarry, exploited by the people from the small town nearby.
We estimate the exploitation of this quarry started in 1650. It’s mainly exploited for building stone. Many old inscriptions vanished or became unclear, because this quarry has been in constant use for various purposes. During war times, people and their cattle used to hide here. It was also used as a storage facility for the farmers nearby
When the underground mushroom industry became popular after the world war, a large part got transformed into a mushroom farm.
Nowadays, the first part is still in use by a farmer, to store his machinery, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables. In the back part, the mushroom farmer is still active, but on a very small small scale. He still has a few mushroom beds, but it’s more a hobby for him now.
Entering the quarry was surprisingly easy for us
(lightning done with a single strobe)
The first part is the oldest part, but sadly enough very weathered from the constant use of the quarry.
Note how they desperatly cut out more blocks from the pillars. This is called “roofbouw” in dutch and it occurs most in communal quarries because there was alsmost no supervision and everybody from the town had the right to cut out blocks, even if they were unexperienced. This has been the reason for several giant tragic collapses in the area. Luckly in here it’s still ok.
The weird thingy’s on the foreground, are actually potatoes who are producing new stems (/roots):
The variety of block size and exploitation levels clearly tells us that this wasn’t a large scale exploitation like in those other more popular quarrys, but it were various smaller exploitations, during a longer period of time. This in combination with the location of the quarry tells us, that it was mainly exploited for local use, whenever the locals needed to (re)build something, and not for export to larger towns nearby.
We now enter the mushroom farm. These pics were made with a 3600 lumen halogen lantern, that was made by a friend of me.
No need for extra lightning in here, we just put on the electricity. The blue light in the back, is from ugly the Daylight Tl lamps in the next room.
For this one I preferred to use my strobe again:
And for this one I used my led lantern, with the head unscrewed, so I had a nice ultra-wide beam, instead of a spot.
(made with TL lights)
The old mushroom farm, with the 3600 lumen halogen lantern:
And in the deepest part of the quarry, we found a window. Behind it there is a small chamber with a giant air-shaft. During the day, you see daylight coming true the window, which is a very funny sight after spending so much hours in the dark. When it rains, there’s also a lot of mud coming down as you can see.
Lightning was done with a petromax underneath my camera, a coleman behind the window, and a single strobe behind the curtain.
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