For people from further afield the name Tunstead may not be familiar. It is a quarry and cement plant on Waterswallows Road, the High Peak’s largest quarry and one of the largest limestone quarries in Europe. Quarrying is very important to this area and many of the wonderful buildings we show people on our tours are built with stone from local quarries. We love to tell people the names of the now, mainly forgotten smaller quarries, which provided the stone. When Buxton Lime Firms were formed in 1891 by an amalgamation of smaller privately owned quarries including, for example, T Beswick and son of Small Dale and Edward Heathcote and son of Doveholes, the industry was a hard and dangerous place. Thankfully with mechanisation it is a far safer place to work these days. At that time the Buxton Lime Firm owned 1522 acres of land and 89 open lime kilns.
The story of quarrying is in many ways the story of Buxton. If this area had not been so rich in natural resources it would never have been settled and many local families would not have made their living from the ground below our feet. As with every community, the origin and nature of the rock around Buxton has shaped its history and continues, sometimes literally, to shape its future.
The stories of the men and the village communities based around the quarries are as poignant and every bit as important as the coal mining communities however we often seem to hear or see little of their struggle and contribution to the economy of the area. Peak Dale for example grew up along with the local limestone quarrying industry with families attracted to live in the area by the prospect of employment in the quarries.
The images capture the people, the communities , and the day-to-day toil and hardship required to feed the limestone industry and we soon realised that we were looking at the story of limestone quarrying, told through cine film, TV broadcasts and images stretching back over 120 years.
The early glass plate images capture a time which is reminiscent of the Wild West of America. The men even appear to be wearing gun slinger coats! The images also tell the story of an industry becoming increasingly mechanised with machinery replacing the hard labour of a single man with a pick. This archive is being released, through the generosity of Lafarge Tarmac, over the next year or so, so that eventually the local community and beyond can freely enjoy the story of our community and pay due respect to the graft and grist of the quarrymen.
Before that however there will be an exhibition of some of the more iconic images at the Green Man Gallery in Buxton between 5th June and 10th July. At the end of the exhibition the canvas prints will be auctioned with the proceeds going to support the wonderful work of our local hospice Blythe House.
For more information contact Discover Buxton info@discoverbuxton.co.uk or ring 0129879648
