Quarries

Maerz limekilns at the Buxton Lime Industries Hindlow Quarry. The stone for burning is brought in by rail from Tunstead as quarrying has ended here.

A happy afternoon exploring an old abandoned stone quarry yielded lots of old machinery quietly rusting and rotting away. Here two crushers sit side-by-side, both made by Robert Broadbent & Son Ltd., Phoenix Ironworks, Stalybridge. On the right is a jaw crusher of the Blake's patent type for primary crushing of larger pieces of rock. To the left is a roll crusher designed to break smaller pieces of rock down to cubes for roads and paths etc. I thing that the remains below the crushers might have included some form of rotary screen but the decay of the various parts made it difficult to be sure.

In 1919, Hippolyte Dumont built three lime kilns at Ampsin near Liège. A large lime and cement works was developed here and flourished until c1970 when the Dumont-Wautier Company built the new rotary kiln in its nearby quarry. These old kilns are 11 metres deep and 6 metres in diameter.

There was a small quarry and pier at this site before 1874 and these kilns were part of the operations at that time. In 1888 William Baird & Co took over and developed the quarry to supply fluxing stone for their steelworks in Glasgow. After a period of low activity Dinmore Quarries Ltd commenced working the site, mainly producing kiln burnt lime for agriculture and this continued until 1948 when all production ceased. The tunnels below the kiln drawing level were for loading lime into carts or possibly railway skips. This was dropped down through shafts with iron doors.

Mandalls Slate Co Ltd worked a number of quarries on the slopes of Coniston Old Man. The main processing area was the mill at Saddlestone to where the slate 'clogs' were brought down by an aerial ropeway. Remains of the ropeway are still evident right up the hill with both fixed and moving ropes lying on the ground. The collapsed wooden framework was the start of the next flight of the ropeway.

Fallen pylon from the aerial ropeway that brought slate down from the mines and quarrieson the slopes of Coniston Old Man to the mill at Saddlestone. The castings show that the ropeway was manufactured by the Widnes firm of Richard White and Sons.

Lots of corrugated iron to be seen at the Maes-y-Droell silica sand quarry at Llanarmon.

The Forest of Dean Stone Firms Ltd and predecessors have been processing pennant sandstone from quarries at Bixhead for over 200 years. The Cannop stone works opened in 1901 by Messrs Turner & Sons of Cardiff. Until the 1950s the Bicslade tramroad brought stone down what was the last horse-worked plateway in the Forest. When I visited the stone works in 1993 it was still using the old reciprocating stone saws in the sheds on the right. Today the processing has been completely modernised with new wire and circular saws. www.fodstone.co.uk/home.htm

Primary crusher building at Pentre Halkyn limestone quarry.

The Forest of Dean Stone Firms Ltd and predecessors have been processing pennant sandstone from quarries at Bixhead for over 200 years. The Cannop stone works opened in 1901 by Messrs Turner & Sons of Cardiff. Until the 1950s the Bicslade tramroad brought stone down what was the last horse-worked plateway in the Forest. When I visited the stone works in 1993 it was still using the old reciprocating stone saws in the sheds on the right. Today the processing has been completely modernised with new wire and circular saws.

The limestone quarries at Penmon Park were operating in the early nineteenth century. By 1875 the workings were connected to a saw mill and jetty at Porth Penmon by a 3ft 6ins gauge incline. At this time the quarries were in the control of Samuel Blatchford Tucker and the Anglesea (Penmon) Marble Quarries Co Ltd. This company was liquidated in 1879 and followed by Public Works & Contract Co Ltd (registered in1883 and liquidated in 1890), Penmon Quarries Ltd (1886 - 1891). From 1890 the quarries were worked by John Harold Hope until closure in 1911. The route of the incline can be seen left of centre in this photo. The piers and timbers in the foreground once held a travelling crane, whilst the stone building in the background is the remains of the sawmill.

Shelter from the storm, and falling rocks, at the Dinorwic slate quarries. The seated character was contemplating its potential for development as a holiday home.

The Bishopley limestone quarries at Frosterley flourished during the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century. Closed by the 1940s, all that remains apart from the grassed over quarries are two massive banks of limekilns and this weighbridge building that once weighed the railway wagons into and out of the site.

The Yr Eifl granite quarry at Trefor opened in 1850 and closed in 1971. This incline brought stone down to Trefor pier for shipping out.

Essential reading for the railway staff at a number of quarries and chemical works across the ICI empire in the 1950s and 60s. The typescript addendum lists the special rules applicable at the Tunstead quarry sidings. This is particularly notable for the section addressing the "bumping" of "sticking" wagons!

The new cement plant at Tunstead Quarry is situated in the old workings. In spite of this it is still visible in the south from a long way off. It looks great at night too. :-)

On my recent nocturnal visit the hydrating plant at Tunstead was hard at work with the chimneys chucking out water vapour. The structure behind contains the shaft limekilns.

Bulk lime wagons queue outside the hydrating plant alongside the shaft kilns at Tunstead Quarry.