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Wealth From the Rocks

People in the limestone area have traditionally exploited both the bedrock itself and mineral veins that occur within it.

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Wealth from the Bedrock

Limestone quarrying took place not only to provide building stone for houses, outbuildings and walls, but also for limeburning.

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Building with Lime

Lime was also vital as one of the main constituents of lime mortar used in building.  Huge quantities were used from the 17th century onwards in growing towns and cities.  Similarly, it found increasing uses in a variety of chemical processes.  Early industrial limeburning concentrated around Buxton, Dove Holes and Peak Forest, where coal for fuel was mined close-by and the distance to the main markets to the north-west was minimised.

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An aerial view of Dove Holes, showing the extensive industrial limeburning remains, with overlapping quarries, kilns and waste heaps, which date to the 17th and 18th centuries

Liming the Land

Although the fields on the limestone plateau have alkaline bedrock, the soils are acidic and traditionally, the addition of lime, has been used to counteract this.  Spread in larger quantities it burns off the vegetation.  This was particularly useful when removing the coarse grasses and heather of the commons in advance of reseeding with better grass.

In many places small agricultural limekilns and adjacent quarries can still be seen within fields, although they have become increasingly rare in recent years as hollows are filled and mounds flattened to create easily-managed fields.

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The hollow in front of this small quarry is a typical field kiln, at Rose Farm, Priestcliffe, created by the local farmer to make his own lime to spread on the adjacent fields

Wealth from the Minerals

Lead mining has been one of the main sources of employment and income in the Peak District for many centuries.  It has been practiced since at least Romano-British times and mines were common in the limestone plateau, particularly in its eastern half around Taddington, Flagg, Monyash, Sheldon, Over Haddon and Youlgreave.

A good example of large lead mine hillocks and vein opencuts at Tideslow Rake, near Tideswell in the northern part of the limestone plateau where large lead rakes are still much in evidence. This site is one of several across the limestone plateau as a whole that are now protected as Scheduled Ancient Monuments

Notable post-medieval mines include Magpie Mine south of Sheldon, one of the best-preserved mine sites in Britain.  Here there are standing buildings, including a Cornish engine house, shafts that have now been grilled to make them safe and extensive hillocks.

The 1860s Cornish pumping engine house and 20th century headgear at Magpie Mine near Sheldon

For more information on this topic try the archive.

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