Description and History of Site:-
This was a large and deep quarry hole cut into a natural hillside of The Haw and it was worked as single-height faces without benches. In the early 1990s it became a landfill site and is now completely filled with waste and there is nothing to be seen at all. An estate map of 1757 showed four lime kilns in two small quarries at what became Skibeden Quarry and the OS First Edition, from the 1840s, marked 'Skibeden Limekilns' so by that time it was already a commercial operation, leased from Skipton Castle Estate by William Nightingale. By the 1880s or 90s the kilns had been shut down and the by then combined quarry was also given up. In 1931 it was reopened by the Embsay Rock Co, because the strength and purity of its 'blue' limestone made excellent hydraulic lime and also made it a good hard-wearing roadstone. Two of the kilns were derelict but the other pair was used for a while until lime burning was stopped here. New crushing and screening plant was installed in 1931. Production was maintained until the depletion of its reserves brought it to an end.
Further Reading and References:-
Johnson, D. 2010. Limestone industries of the Yorkshire Dales. Stroud: Amberley, pp. 88-89, 94-96, 234-35, 243.
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