Underground Quarries
Abandoned open quarry sites can be seen on hillsides in many parts of the northern Yorkshire Dales, some of them at relatively small rock outcrops, and worked only to serve the needs for stone by local communities.
By contrast, in the first half of the 20th century, the larger commercial quarries in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale often extracted stone from underground mines, sometimes old lead workings. This was certainly the case in the chert and flagstone quarries recorded in the SWAAG database and discussed briefly on this page.
Chert Quarries
Chert, the name given to a form of quartz composed mainly of silica, was quarried in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale from about 1904 until 1954. It was sold primarily to the Staffordshire potteries where, in the 18th century, Josiah Wedgwood, in trying to emulate fine oriental porcelain, had discovered that flint ground between chert stones produced a superior white base for china manufacture.
The best source of information about chert quarrying in the two dales is here: Chert quarrying in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. This is an article abridged by SWAAG member Alan Mills after the original version, by Kay Jackson, was presented in 2010 to a meeting of the Northern Mine Research Society in Reeth and was published in full in the NMRS Journal, British Mining, vol. 90, November 2010. Further information about the individual chert quarries described can be seen below.
Fremington Chert Quarry – The best-remembered and last-surviving chert quarry in the two dales was operated in underground workings high on Fremington Edge. Large spoil heaps from those workings remain easily visible today. Further information about this quarry is available here:
– An article by Alan Mills: Recollections of a chert quarryman.
– Operational records at Durham Mining Museum: http://www.dmm.org.uk/colliery/f907.htm
Old Moulds Level Chert Quarry – Between 1922 and 1932, another chert quarry was operated in Arkengarthdale, higher up the dale, on the west side, at the previously closed Old Moulds lead-mine level. SWAAG member Alan Mills has contributed information and photographs about this underground quarry in the SWAAG database, Mining 1 category PDF, scroll to record 221.
Hungry Chert Quarries, Mouldside – From 1932 until the early 1950s, the Old Moulds chert business was conducted in the Mouldside area, partly as an opencast operation in the former lead hushes around Hungry Hush and partly underground at newly driven levels. The business was known as the Hungry Chert Quarries. The operations there have been researched by SWAAG member Stephen Eastmead, whose main report can be read in two formats:
– online here: (PDF) Hungry Chert Quarries, Arkengarthdale, North Yorkshire. | Stephen Eastmead – Academia.edu
– as a printed book here: Hungry Chert Quarries (lulu.com).
SWAAG member Alan Mills has also contributed to knowledge of the operations of the Hungry Chert quarries in the SWAAG database, Mining 1 category PDF, scroll to record 217.
Flagstone Quarries
Former lead mines in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale were also used to quarry flagstone for use in paving and roof slates. In the SWAAG database are studies of two of them in the Mining 1 category PDF, scroll to records 49 (Booze Wood Level) and 200 (Cogden Hall).
