A bow of stone: Crich Cliffe
Limestone quarrying probably began at Crich in Mediaeval times, from where lime was supplied to improve the Coalfield farmlands to the south and east. Later, the Butterley Company (builders of St Pancras Station) began quarrying at Crich to supply their Ripley ironworks. In the 1830s, the railway engineer, George Stephenson opened up Cliffe Quarry to produce lime on a large-scale. The lime burning process was fuelled using unsaleable small-sized coal from his Clay Cross collieries. In the 1960s, production switched to aggregates and much of the former quarry site became the home of the National Tramway Museum.
The main limestone outcrop of the Derbyshire Dome lies 4 km to the north west of Crich and generally dips southeastward.
|
However at Crich, this pattern is interrrupted. Here, the rocks have been folded into a large arch or ‘anticline'. As well as the Carboniferous Limestone, this structure also affected the overlying Millstone Grit and Coal Measure rocks. The overlying beds have long since been removed by erosion, leaving the older limestone as an ‘inlier' which protrudes through the younger rocks. Quarrying has sliced away the western half of the ridge to reveal a superb view of this structure.
|
