HF: New information in red Guy Breshears contacted me explaining he lives in Hong Kong and is working on a HK history project. He wondered if we had any information about Tai Shek-ha 大石下 Stone-quarry – A hamlet which is mentioned in a 1841 HK Census. The first set of census results were published in the 2nd issue of H.K. Govt. Gazette, […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent a further sample of British Army Aid Group reports sent during during the Japanese occupation of HK in WW2. HF: There are many industrial references. Well known companies such as China Light & Power as well as smaller concerns such as those producing oil ,boat diesel engines and acids. Mines reopened by the Japanese. What was […]
» Read moreIDJ and Hugh Farmer. IDJ has sent this early 1950s image of a Kaolin Mine in the New Territories from Hong Kong in Picture and Story by John and Veronica Stericker published in HK in 1953. As IDJ says ‘ the book doesn’t say where it is located except it is “remote and difficult to access”. I have another 1950s book which […]
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Hugh Farmer: A 1908 Government report on Manufactures, Mines & Fisheries includes this detail: Un In was a big village of 250 people at the end of the 19th century. The map above (full background details of the map are provided in Tymon Mellor’s first article below) shows the locations of both the lead mine and Un-in village. The latter is […]
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Hugh Farmer: Researching my recent Quarrying in Hong Hong article brought up lots of place names with quarrying associations. And even more questions. Can you help answer any? A Kung Ngam Quarry: “A Kung literally means maternal grandfather or old man in Cantonese while Ngam means rock, but in the case of this place name, “A Kung” refers to Tam Kung, sea god, who the […]
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James Chan: I found this reference to Chu Lu Kok Island Granite Quarry while looking for something else. The documents here come from the Public Works Department, 1906. The documents say the island was “on the north of Lantao Island” though the Particulars of the Lot say “north of Chu Lu Kuk. A mistake? I can’t find where this island […]
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IDJ : Quarries supplying construction materials for the proposed Ping Shan Airport are thought to be at the location above, the nearest mapped quarries to the site. They were connected to the airport site by a temporary narrow gauge railway. Site drawings for this project have not been found so far. The RAF’s Airfield Construction Branch paper mentions the clearing […]
» Read moreDespite its small area, Hong Kong has a relatively large number of minerals. A large number of these have been prospected, a lovely term conjuring up images of the Klondike gold rush, and I estimate about 25 actually commercially exploited. I have recently posted on Gwulo.com a brief history of two of these mines neither of which, should you be […]
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