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The gritstone areas of the Peak have been a major source of stone quarried both for building and for products such as millstones, gateposts and troughs. There are large Post Medieval quarries, commonly of 18th and 19th century date, and also smaller delves, some of greater age. Domed millstones have been produced on the East Moors from Medieval times onwards.

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Domed Millstones

Millstone production, along with lead mining, was one of the main Medieval industries of the Peak District. While the millstones were made all along the East Moors and an isolated production site is known on the western flanks of Kinder, the two main centres of production were above Hathersage and Baslow.

Production started at least as early as the 14th century, reaching its peak in the late-16th and 17th centuries with the break in supply of French imports due to political unrest on the continent. They then ceased in the early-19th century.

The gritstone quarry at Millstone Edge above Hathersage is one of the largest on the East Moors. This edge was one of the main areas for millstone production from Medieval times onwards. The quarries continued in work until about 100 years ago and the large face was mostly created in the 19th century.

The domed millstone quarries at Gardom’s Edge above Baslow are particularly important, with multiple small quarry faces and delves, complex access tracks, quarryman’s sheds and many abandoned millstones.

At Gardom's Edge, a number of clues can be found including this ruined quarryman’s shed.

A lichen covered domed millstone in the woodland below Gardom’s Edge. Such stones were abandoned in the quarry during the last stages of production if they proved sub-standard or pieces broke from them during dressing.

Traditionally the stones were quarried by individual masons, each making about 16 pairs per year. When one broke during manufacture this would represent a significant loss of income. Although some millstones were undoubtedly taken into the Derwent Valley for local use, the majority were transported eastwards to inland ports at Bawtry and Stainforth, to be shipped via Hull for distribution to other regions of Britain.

Defoe, writing in the early-18th century, described millstone being transported across the moors in pairs, by putting an axle through their central holes and rolling them like wheels.

The main reasons for the decline of this industry is thought to be that when it became fashionable to eat white bread, Peak District stones were not suitable, because they turned the flour an unpalatable grey colour!

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Dayworking and Stone Slate Quarries

Other distinctive quarrying exists. It was common for dayworking to be practiced, where stone-getters were allowed to work scattered boulders across broad areas of moorland, breaking these and producing gateposts, lintels and other items. Broken examples remain and part-removed boulders are common, sometimes with lines of grooves for plugs and feathers, a technique used for splitting stone.

Extensive 18th and 19th century quarrying at and above Fallinge Edge above Beeley has a variety of broken products, including this large gritstone trough lying near where it was quarried. This was abandoned when it cracked during the final stages of dressing.

In places there are distinctive shallow quarries with many small pits dug where the surface rock was thinly bedded. These provided roofing and flooring slabs, both commonly used in the traditional buildings of the Peak, particularly from the 17th century onwards.

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Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Quarries

There are many such quarries with deep faces. These often produced building stone, including dressed items such as ashlar, sills, lintels and quoins, and other products such as troughs and gateposts.

Millstones were also made in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often for coarse bread and animal feed. These later examples are of a different design to the earlier domes stones, with cylindrical edges. Identical stones were commonly exported to Scandinavia to crush trees to pulp for papermaking. The quarries around Birchover and Stanton still produce good quality building stone, some used to produce finely-cut ornamental details.

An impressive quarry at Burbage Edge near Fox House, worked in the 19th century, with a late-type millstone or pulpstone in the foreground.

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What Survives

East Moors quarrying was extensive and there are many examples along and behind the gritstone scarps from Stanage Edge southwards. Stanage itself has a well-known small quarry with a stack of cylindrical millstones/pulpstones at its southern end and further north there are many broken products on the rocky slope below the edge.

One of the main industries of the East Moors was quarrying, including the creation of millstones and pulpstones, as here below Stanage Edge above Hathersage

Millstone Edge quarry also above Hathersage is large and was similarly used, but previously also produced domed millstones. Broken examples of these can be found on surrounding moorland, as at Carl Wark. Nearby to the south is Bole Hill Quarry, with the well-known stacks of abandoned cylindrical millstones/pulpstones left at the northern end. This large quarry, with an impressive inclined tramway to the valley below, provided the stone to build the Howden and Derwent Reservoir dams in the early 20th century.

This stack of millstones/pulpstones at one end of Bole Hill Quarry was abandoned in the early 20th century when this industry collapsed.

There are also occasional quarries to the north and west. The Cracken Edge Quarries above Chinley are noteworthy, with extensive vertical faces created along the edge, where there is good stone. Banks of spoil divide a series of working areas, and extensive waste heaps built up as debris was tipped down the steep slope. There are access tracks and an inclined tramway with a pulley wheel on stone supports at its upper end. There were also underground stone mines behind the faces, now mostly collapsed, although entrance approach routes between spoil-heaps retained by drystone walls remain.

The extensive gritstone quarries at Cracken Edge above Chinley, showing the vertical quarry faces and the banks of waste stone between each.

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What you can do

While quarries sometimes lie on open moorland and can be easily inspected, it should be remembered that there are inherent dangers in exploring them and care must be taken. For more information on visiting archaeological sites in the Peak District

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