Steep benches of excavated limestone in the abandoned Eldon HIll Quarry, between Castleton and Peak Forest, in evening sunlight, looking southwest. The Peak District. Sports Climbs. Outdoor Adventure. Rock Climbing, Horse Shoe Quarry. Limestone wal A distant view of Roystone Grange Pump House, a 19th century building which pumped compressed air to drive drills in the local quarries. Looking down on the Hope Valley from the top road to Sheffield, with the cement factory and limestone quarry in the distance.
Steep benches of excavated limestone in the abandoned Eldon HIll Quarry, between Castleton and Peak Forest, in evening sunlight, looking south. Yes this green lagoon is actually in Derbyshire!
This is a disused quarry located near Wirksworth in Derbyshire. Peacock butterfly Inachis io feeding on Field Scabious Knautia arvensis in a disused limestone quarry. Steep benches of excavated limestone in the abandoned Eldon HIll Quarry, between Castleton and Peak Forest, in evening sunlight, looking east. Drifts of Spring Sandwort on the quarry spoil at the Gregory Mine. Ashover Derbyshire. A Hunslet industrial shunter taking hoppers to the loader on the internal quarry railway sidings Tunstead quarry Derbyshire.
Flora can be seen growing between these Ice Age rocks Dramatic view of glacial rocks seen atop Malham Cove in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
Quarried limestone rockfaces can be seen along the ridge above. Disused limestone quarry that has been recolonised by a variety of grassland and tree species. Capturing a lovely blue sky day in the Peak District of Derbyshire, along the Monsal trail. Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuchsii , showing disused limestone quarry habitat. VIew to Great rocks dale and the quarry there. Path leading down to the Monsal trail. But Merrimans and Bleaklow Industries, which owns the land, disagree.
Then, said to be unsure of the quarry's legal status and anxious to preserve its national reputation, RMC pulled out. Bleaklow needed a quarrying company willing to deal with the contentious legal issues.
Merrimans of Leicester stepped into the breach. Between July and May , it extracted , tonnes of limestone from what legally was a fluorspar quarry. At the same time it 'won' tonnes of fluorspar, none of which has been processed. Merrimans blame its apparent lack of interest in fluorspar on Glebe Mines, a local rival and the sole British fluorspar processor.
Glebe Mines says it has refused to buy fluorspar from Backdale because of the problems surrounding the original permission to quarry.. Merrimans robustly insists that it has the right to extract all the limestone it can sell and intends to fight any limitations on its work. Whatever the merits of the rival legal arguments, the scar of the quarry is beyond doubt. It means that a walk, east along the crest of Longstone Edge, one of the great escarpments which give the Peak its character, ends at the hideous site of an amputated hill.
Walking in the Peak for more than half a century, I have seen workings which have become gothic and romantic with the passage of years. But time takes a century or more to heal. The scope and scale of modern quarrying destroys rather than changes the landscape. The whole purpose of the Peak Park - incomparable countryside for the benefit the whole region - is under threat. They are about to extend their workings further west and would have begun to excavate a third site nearby had they not made an agreement with the planning authority to waive their right in return for permission to quarry in the south of the Park.
The extension was originally agreed on the understanding that fluorspar would be 'won' underground. Now the Authority has agreed to another form of mining - open cast.
Tearing away the surface of the land will allow Glebe to get its dues in the shortest possible time. And, the Authority argues, it will mean that almost half of the quarried stone will be used for the restoration of both Glebe sites. But had the fluorspar been mined rather than quarried, the land would have been left virtually untouched. The case for fluorspar mining, and the desecration of the Peak, has always been built on the needs of the national economy - a case which is hard to argue while several hundred tonnes lie quarried but unprocessed in Backdale quarry.
The mill stone grit won at Stanton will mostly be used for paving stones. Should the laudable objective of garden improvement take precedence over the protection of areas of natural beauty? And why does so much motorway aggregate have to come from the National Parks? Local needs, such as employment and the attraction of a solid income, have always been a consideration when Peak Park planning issues are examined - though it is generally assumed that the 22 million visitors to the Peak Park each year do more for the economy than could possibly be achieved by activities like extended quarrying, which might encourage them to spend their summer weekends somewhere else.
But how much weight should be given to the needs of the national economy? The government's latest Mineral Policy Statement defines the criteria for 'rigorous examination' of quarrying extension. There is a nagging suspicion that 'the need for the development, including the extraction of the mineral, in terms of national consideration and the impact of permitting or refusing upon the local authority' and 'the availability and the cost of alternative sources of supply' will increasingly take precedence over 'detrimental effects upon the environment'.
And what happens when the pressure to build new homes reaches the North? Will the need for road aggregates and building material become the primary national consideration? Or will the builders and the civil engineers be told to look outside the National Parks - even if the costs of alternative sources are high? More than the convenience and pleasures of the people of the Peak are at stake.
The Peak Park, like the other National Parks, was created to protect the green and pleasant land from the demands of dark satanic mills. The clouded hills bring joy to thousands of families who only visit them for a day at a time. They, as much as those of us who look up to the limestone skyline each morning, ought to rise up in defence of what is their country as well as ours. The southern slope of Longstone Edge, under which I walk most days, hides the nearest workings from my view.
And a disused railway bridge - now part of the Monsal trail - prevents the limestone lorries from thundering through my village. That should concern us all. Stop destroying my Peak District.
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