Esso Wharf Road

The lower reaches of the Plym once had much steeper sides than they do today. The subject of extensive quarrying, particuarly in the early part of the 19th century, much of the stone sits now in Plymouth Sound (it forms the Breakwater).

One of these quarries, Deadman's Bay or simply Bay Quarry, off Breakwater Road, Coxside, now houses the storage tanks for Esso.

The quarry had been largely worked out by 1850 and, in time, with its sheer cliff backdrop became an ideal location in which to land and store petrol. There was a petrol store here in 1877

By 1893 the Anglo-American Company had become the first oil company to establish itself in Plymouth.

EH 27 July 1999