North Yorkshire Geodiversity Partnership

Ingleton Quarry, Precambrian
Malham Cove Carboniferous
West Burton Falls Carboniferous
Cleave Dyke Quarry, Jurassic
Geology

Geology

Geological Sites

Geological Sites

Rocks for us

Rocks For Us

Other Industrial Uses

In addition to its use as a building stone or aggregate, stone was also quarried for a variety of other industrial uses. Hope Quarry at Dacre, in Nidderdale produced grindstones, Middle Tongue Quarry, Bewerley produced pulping stones (exported to Norway and Sweden for use in paper making), Millstones Quarry, Summerbridge produced millstones, and Spring Wood Quarry (Nidderdale) refractory bricks. Silica sand was obtained from sandstone quarried at Low Woods Quarry, Smelthouses, and, until 1991, Hanson’s Blubberhouses Quarry. Local names often reflect these uses as for example High and Low Millstones, Stags Fell. During the first half of the twentieth century, chert was quarried at Fremington Edge and Hungry Hush for use as crushing pavers in the Midlands ceramic and pottery industries. At Moughton Whetstone Hole, in Crummack Dale, the red and green banded (known as liesegang rings) sandstones of the Austwick Formation were worked for whet or sharpening stones.

In the Vale of York glacial lake clays are, currently, being used for the production of pottery at Littlethorpe, blocks at Hemingbrough and bricks at Alne.

Further information on minerals, mining and quarrying is available from the British Geological Survey at www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/