Description and History of Site:-
This is one of the largest and deepest working quarries in the North of England, cut into a large reef knoll and extending in area 1000m by 600m. At the deeper southern end it is, thus far, worked as six benches but only three at the opposite end. It is also deemed to be one of the most modern quarries in the North with a mobile primary crusher at the aces being worked linked by a long moveable conveyor to the main crushing and screening plant so there is no regular dumper movement of stone within the quarry. The plant is fully automated. Crushed stone is transferred along another conveyor system to large hoppers over the site's extensive rail sidings. By 2012 about half of all crushed stone was despatched by rail. It has reserves and consent to continue until at least 2035 with an annual extraction limit of 2.2m tonnes per annum, with the company's own rail wagons transferring the product to its facilities at Leeds and in Hull where much of it is converted into concrete products or dry or coated stone. Much of what goes out by road ends up across in plants West Yorkshire and Lancashire, mainly for aggregate. First Edition OS mapping shows lime kilns here so what is now a massive quarry was a smattering of small workings each feeding a small masonry kiln. In 1887 William Fairbank was recorded in a trade directory as the principal limeburner and lime merchant in the area using twin masonry kilns sited near the present quarry entrance, discharging onto what was the main road but is now an internal road, with scant remains of one kiln visible in the banking.
William Spencer of Raygill/Lothersdale Quarry (NYK 01510) took advantage of the building of the Skipton-Grassington Railway to expand operations to this site acquiring Fairbank's quarry in 1901 and then purchasing rights from the landowner soon after on a 56-year lease. Construction of the first of six 1900-patent Spencer steel-clad kilns began almost immediately, the first being commissioned on 29 September 1902, to great fanfare. A row of cottages was also built (long since demolished) and rail sidings were laid out. The last of the six kilns was commissioned in 1914.

In 1903 the site turned out 13,000 tonnes with each kiln having a capacity at any given time of 80t. Breakers and fillers were used until mechanisation came in 1948 with crushing and screening plant installed. New plant replaced this in 1967, including replacing the tar-coating plant. At the same time the Spencer kilns were decommissioned and replaced by two oil-fired West's Catagas kilns, fully automated.

In 1970 the company that had bought out P.W. Spencer Ltd - LS M - became Tilcon and they undertook further modernisation with two new, gas-fired Kraus-Maffei rotary kilns erected in 1972, the first in Britain, and branching out into concrete block production. The Wests were converted to gas but unsuccessfully so they were later converted back to oil. The workforce then stood at 94, compared to Spencer's 60, rising to 119 in 1980, but this year saw the decommissioning of the rotary kilns and the laying off of 51 employees. The Catagas kilns were shut down in 1996 and that was the end of lime burning here. All the kilns were demolished a year later.

Further Reading and References:-
Anon. 1968. 'Limestone quarrying in a National Park'. The Quarry Manager's Journal, 52, pp. 359-66.
Anon. 1973. 'Large-scale redevelopment of Swinden Quarry'. The Quarry Manager's Journal, 57, pp. 409-18.
Johnson, D. 2010. Limestone industries of the Yorkshire Dales. Stroud: Amberley, pp. 170-79, 185, 235, 238-39.
Johnson, D. 2016. Quarrying in the Yorkshire Pennines. Stroud: Amberley, pp. 26, 70, 72, 74, 88.

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Key Words :- operational limestone quarry

Viewing the Site :- no access or sight lines at all though group visits can be arranged with quarry management

Address :- B6265, Cracoe, Grassington, North Yorkshire, BD23
Grid Ref :- SD 977 613
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.047660 , Long -2.036618
Local Authority :- North Yorkshire Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Operational site, in use for original purpose
Site Dates :- pre 1850 - still operational
Record Date :- 15 January 2018

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