Crich Quarry (Crich Cliff Quarry; Cliff Quarry), Crich, Amber Valley, Derbyshire, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Crich Quarry (Crich Cliff Quarry; Cliff Quarry)	Quarry (Disused)
Crich	Civil Parish
Amber Valley	Borough
Derbyshire	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Geologically, Crich lies on a small inlier of Carboniferous limestone (an outcrop on the edge of the Peak District surrounded by younger Upper Carboniferous rocks).

Quarrying for limestone probably began at Crich in Roman times. In 1791 Benjamin Outram and Samuel Beresford bought land for a quarry to supply limestone to their new ironworks at Butterley. This became known as Hilt's Quarry, and the stone was transported down a steep wagonway, the Butterley Company Gangroad, to the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge. Near there they also built lime kilns for supplying farmers and for the increasing amount of building work. Apart from a period when it was leased to Albert Banks, the quarry and kilns were operated by the Butterley Company until 1933. The gangroad, which descending some 300 feet in about a mile, was at first worked by gravity with a brakeman ‘spragging’ (i.e. slowing) the wheels of the wagons by means of a pole or bar hinged to the rear axle. The wagons were then returned to the summit by horses. However, in 1812 the incline was the scene of a remarkable experiment when William Brunton, an engineer for the company, produced his Steam Horse locomotive. In 1840 George Stephenson, in building the North Midland Railway, discovered deposits of coal at Clay Cross and formed what later became the Clay Cross Company. He realised that burning lime would provide a use for the coal slack that would otherwise go to waste. He leased Cliff Quarry (the name by which the site at Crich was known at the time) and built limekilns at Bullbridge. They were connected by another wagonway including a section known as ‘The Steep’, a 550 yards (500 m) self-acting incline at a slope of 1 in 5.

Cliff Quarry closed in 1957/8 and the eastern end was bought in 1959 by the Tramway Museum. Another part of the quarry reopened in the 1960s operated by RMC and Tarmac for the building of motorways across the country. In 2000 ownership of the active quarry site (Crich Quarry) had been transferred to Bardon Aggregates. However, due to a downturn in sales and after finding the limestone was seemingly contaminated with a substance that turned it a strange colour they closed the quarry in 2010 and it never reopened.

In 1964 (and for 38 years) Rolls-Royce used a separate part of the quarry for dumping low-level radioactive waste such as enriched uranium, cobalt-60 and carbon-14. Following a campaign and blockades by villagers in the Crich and District Environment Action Group, dumping eventually ceased in 2002. In 2004 the Government backed an Environment Agency document that banned further dumping and required Rolls-Royce to ultimately restore and landscape the site.

In 2011 plans were proposed to redevelop the 44-acre site at Crich Quarry into the Amber Rock Resort (a massive water park complex and hotel). At the present time (2020) the site remains derelict. Whilst the machinery has been heavily vandalised the buildings and structures themselves are still there, although much of the old quarry site (opposite the Tramway Museum) is inaccessible due to flooding.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References