Description and History of Site:-
Threshfield Quarry is massive in area though no more than c. 10-15m deep. It is 1100m in length, north-west to south-east and 400m widest at its maximum though the rock cut linking the lower quarries with the single upper quarry is less than 40m wide. It is made up of six discrete quarry holes: one was long since infilled with landfill waste, two are leased by Tarmac to contractors to sue as garage and storage space, one has a lake within it where attempts have been made to encourage native crayfish, one awaits business development and the huge upper quarry is being left to naturally 're-wild'; this has full public access within the quarry and around its perimeter on new paths.

The lower and older quarry holes worked Magnesian limestone, the rest Carboniferous Great Scar Limestone. Before the upper quarry was opened up there was evidence of an old lead mine but this has been lost.

After the site was finally closed down and cleared from 2008 to 2014, all infrastructure apart from what had survived in the limeworks area and one original stone cabin was demolished and cleared.

In 2014 a Heritage Lottery Fund grant funded the creation of a heritage trail around the limeworks which involved laying out new paths, clearing the two main incline planes, clearing out over 100 tonnes of rubble from within three of the kiln draw arch tunnels, and relaying lengths of narrow-gauge track on the inclines along with three Hudson V-skips of the type used in the quarry.

What remains of the limeworks consists of the upper part of the massive stone-built kiln battery, from which the stone-feed gantry extended to the tops of the five 1900-patent Spencer kilns, the top of the one of the rock-cut lower kiln sections, the draw-arch tunnels (three of the four have been fully cleaned out), two cabins, the hydraulic lime bag store, and the incline planes. Local entrepreneur John Delaney (qv Horton Quarry and quarries at Broughton) took advantage of the new Skipton-Grassington Railway in 1902 to take out the lease on the site which hitherto had not been worked at all. He built four Spencer kilns within a very few years with a fifth following in 1934 specifically to feed new hydrating plant. In 1935 his company bought the freehold on the site; in 1939 the company was subsumed within Settle Limes Ltd which was bought out by ICI Mond in 1961. By this time the two earliest quarry holes had been abandoned and work was well advanced in the other three holes that make up the lower quarry area. In 1971 the last of the lower quarries was extended into the hillside and in 1973 the upper quarry extension began, being progressively expanded westwards in discrete sections from 1980, 1985 and 1991. In its early days the site employed over 100 workers but closure of the kilns in 1964 saw it slashed. In 1966 ICI pulled out of lime operations and the later parts of the lower quarries had been leased by Mountain Limestone Ltd (qv NYK 01509) which only wanted the stone to keep its Halton East plant going in 1965. In 1979 Mountain Limestone was bought out by Tarmac which worked the site till its end. In 2000 quarrying stopped but already-blasted stone was taken out up to 2008 when the site was selectively landscaped.

Further Reading and References:-
Johnson, D. Limestone industries of the Yorkshire Dales. Amberley, 2010, pp. 97, 159-65, 215, 221, 224, 226, 233-4, 239-40, 242, 244.
Johnson, D and Martlew, R (eds). Threshfield Quarry. Industrial heritage in the Yorkshire Dales. Threshfield Quarry Development Trust, 2015.

http://www.threshfieldquarry.org.uk/

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Key Words :- disused limestone quarry

Viewing the Site :- Most of the quarry is open to the public. A wheelchair-friendly heritage trail has been laid out around the limeworks area.

Address :- Skirethorns Lane, Threshfield, Grassington, North Yorkshire, BD23
Grid Ref :- SD 970 650
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.080910 , Long -2.047347
Local Authority :- North Yorkshire Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site conserved
Site Dates :- 1902 - 2008
Record Date :- 15 January 2018

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © David Johnson