The Historic Strutt Sandstone & Gritstone Quarries of Belper & Milford, Derbyshire, from the 1700’s скачать в хорошем качестве

The Historic Strutt Sandstone & Gritstone Quarries of Belper & Milford, Derbyshire, from the 1700’s

Stone-quarrying is an industry to which medieval records refer more frequently than enlighteningly. The Strutt family has been quarried stone in Belper, Derbyshire, since the 1700s. The Strutts built their original mills from sandstone, as well as houses, churches, schools, bridges, and hospitals. Many of these buildings are still standing today. In my research, I found that the Strutts owned 20 quarries in Belper, Blackbrook, Chevin, Milford, Holbrook, and Bargate. I’m sure there are many more stone quarries, which I haven’t mentioned in the documentary. The Strutts quarries were mostly sandstone of different courses and colours. Strutts also had Derbyshire Millstone Grit quarry. Many quarries were used for building projects such as Mill Buildings, Musket walls, Railway Cutting and towers. Strutts understood they could save on transportation time by quarrying nearest the possible source. Workers came from far and wide to work as stone masons and labourers in Belper, which saw a boom in the Industrial Revolution. Hunger Hill Quarry was one of the largest quarries in the area for sandstone. The quarry’s name was so called because of the sandstone’s roughness. This quarry was located on Sandbed Lane in Belper, which is generally considered medium to very coarse. The stone is buff/pink in colour, and if you look closely enough, you will find rare pebbles, indicating that this whole area was underwater in the Carboniferous period. Hunger Hill sandstone was worked from the mid-1700s until the early 1900s. It supplied the stone to build Strutt’s West and North Mill in Belper in 1796 and St Peter’s Church in 1824. The Belper Union Workhouse (later to become Babington Hospital) stone was also quarried from this source. Each of these buildings has a familiar redness. This is salt dissolution or salt weathering. Near Strutts Mill in Belper, you will find a small course sandstone quarry called “Weir Quarry.” Stone was also used to build Strutt’s West Mill in 1796 and St Elizabeth House in 1896. Using stone from this quarry would have exhausted supplies very quickly. Town Quarry off Swinney Lane, Belper, was one of the few quarries in the Lower Derwent area that extracted Chatsworth Grit. Years later, this quarry was used as a bottle tip and became a garden of remembrance. Only selected sandstone was quarried at The Scotches Quarry, off Wyver Lane, Belper. It was quarried to build The Strutts’ grand home, Bridge Hill House, in 1793-5. Unfortunately, the original house was demolished in 1931; all that remains of it is a retaining wall in the garden. The sandstone at this quarry must have been of superior quality and more suited for fine work. Strutts understood that the most accessible stone was not always the most suitable for the varying requirements of architecture. Finding other stones possessing the desired qualities was necessary, and specific quarries acquired renown early. In the historical records of Derbyshire County Council, other sources of sandstone were sourced in the Building of Bridge Hill House. Blackbrook Quarry, on Farnah Green Road, is the second-largest Sandstone quarry in Belper. Stone was worked to supply the Crossroads Farm, the stables, the turnpike road, and many of the workers’ cottages in Blackbrook. Several quarries have existed between Belper and Duffield. The oldest one dates back to 1540. This Old Quarry exploited the millstone grit on the ridge. Chevin Quarry is the largest sandstone quarry in this particular area. The musket wall on North Lane was built the same year the quarry opened. I can safely assume the sandstone quarried was used on the musket wall. The uniform drystone walls on North Road were built in the 1800s and most likely came from the same source. Hopping Hole Wood Quarry at Milford is essential in this area. Quarried stone was first used to build Milford Mills in 1782, and various millworker cottages were built between 1792 and 1797. Red Lane Quarry at Makeney was a unique quarry in the area, as the sandstone extracted was red sandstone. Many of the local buildings and parts of Milford Mill were built using the stone from this quarry. The Red Lane quarry stone was donated by the Strutts in 1909 to build The Herbert Strutt School in Belper. The longest and widest quarry is the Belper Railway Line Cutting. The Irish Navvies would have had to cut and blow through tens of thousands of meters of rock, and this rock had to be used somewhere. The North Midland Railway builders built much of the cutting sides out of Ashlar masonry or, as it is commonly called, rubble masonry. Ashlar masonry is a type of stone created by laying highly prepared rocks of the same size, shape, and texture at right angles in cement or lime mortar. The cutting sides used not only Ashlar masonry but Derbyshire Gritstone, which is only quarried in the Dark Peaks of Derbyshire.