tarboat's photos with the keyword: peak forest

A walk in the Derbyshire Peak District led me to a number of intermittent earthen kilns in Perry Dale to the north-west of the village of Peak Forest. This example was at work in the eighteenth century.

Maintenance underway atop a signal post at Peak Forest.

The limeworks at Peak Forest operated earthen 'Sale Kilns' for the commercial production of lime from at least the beginning of the 18th century through, possibly beyond, the first quarter of the 19th century. This image shows just part of the south-eastern section of a limeworks that operated over its life some 138 individual kilns. Not all operated at once and the numbers in use varied from 4 to 10 at different times in the 18th century. The burned lime was sold and removed by pack horse and sometimes by cart. The operation of the kilns was leased by the Chatsworth Estate to various limeburners apart from a perion in the early 19th century when limeburning was taken in house. Three kilns can be seen here starting with a large one just left of centre. A second kiln is againt the track to the right of centre, and a third lies just left of the trees at the far end of the track which is heading for the turnpike road. The land to the left of the kilns is where the limetone for burning in the kilns was quarried and barrowed to the kilns. The large mound to the left comprises waste material taken from another kiln just out of shot.

A trip to Peak Forest this afternoon found 37716 resting at the end of the headshunt.

66 433 shunting at the loading point at Peak Forest as mountains of stone are moved down by the loading shovels.

The "High Peak" railtour from Tyseley to Buxton was headed by 45305 and is seen arriving at Peak Forest. The lack of exhaust was very frustrating as the driver shut off as he had not had a clear view of the signal beyond the bridge.

After a rainy morning I had driven over to Peak Forest to catch a look at 45305 on the "High Peak" railtour from Tyseley to Buxton. The light was much better with some sunshine as the train arrived. As it came into view the exhaust was excellent but unfortunately the driver shut off as he had not had a clear view of the signal beyond the bridge. It was really frustrating that he opened up again after the bridge.

Limekiln above Oxlow Rake. This is a good example of the simple circular intermittent clamp kilns that are found on hillsides across the White Peak of Derbyshire. It was supplied with limestone from the small quarry seen behind.

A panorama of earthen kilns remains. Peak Forest was a large limeburning centre with earthen sale-kilns supplying lime on a commercial scale over a large area. The limekilns and their associated quarries and water heaps of this complex cover just over a square kilometre of ground. They are distributed in irregular clusters on either side of the 1751 turnpike road (A623). In total there are around 130 kilns on the site. The first records of limeburning in Peak Forest date from 1707 and it is known that the last kiln closed in 1823. New kilns tended to follow the quarrying across the hillside as old ones closed. It is likely that some burning was being undertaken here in the late 17th century. It has been suggested that there were normally no more than five kilns working at any one time. Best viewed LARGE .

Today I went walking in the Peak Park looking for limekilns. We came across this massive Pye Kiln just below the top of Gautries Hill near Peak Forest. It is as good an example of the type that you could hope to find and I have never seen one as deep as this. The lack of any waste material in front of the kiln indicates that it was used for burning agricultural lime and the whole contents of the kiln were taken away for spreading on the nearby fields.

After the rain at Foxfield I drove over to Peak Forest to catch a look at 45305 on the "High Peak" railtour from Tyseley to Buxton. The light was much better with some sunshine as the train arrived. As it came into view the exhaust was excellent but unfortunately the driver shut off as he had not had a clear view of the signal beyond the bridge. It was really frustrating that he opened up again after the bridge.