Life on the Edge

Life on the edge material. The site is peculiarly blessed with a significant amount of documentary evidence, including land deeds, photographs and personal accounts. This archive has greatly added to the significance and understanding of the site. The survey identified 59 features. Instantly recognisable is the continuous quarry face. This stretches over half a mile (1km) and in places reaches 32 feet (10m) in height. The stone has been worked by an expert technique of wedging and hammering at the top of the face to prise the rock away. Anecdotal evidence, and a possible shot hole, indicates that gunpowder was also used. In front of the quarry face is the flattish main working area which is covered with huge piles of spoil. The spoil heaps are cut by routeways and two long paths which The winding wheel lead to the track heading downhill. Stone was taken by this route from the quarry in horse-drawn carts. Eleven ELIN PRICE delves into the life and work of small rectilinear drystone structures were found widely distributed across the site. the Cracken Edge Quarry They were quarrymen’s huts, fashioned from spoil to provide shelter and storage.

During 2019 I was a placement MA Landscape It was particularly exciting to find Archaeology student with the Peak District remaining machinery. This comprised National Park Authority. In this role, I conducted a a winding-wheel and a crane at the walkover survey of Cracken Edge Quarry, Chinley. northern end of the site. The windingCracken Edge lies to the west of the Peak District wheel and corresponding rail track were National Park in the High Peak district. It forms the built in 1901 to improve the transport crest of the hill known as Chinley Churn, named from of stone to the bottom of the valley. its shape, on the western side of the valley which runs However, it was soon decommissioned between the villages of Hayfield and Chinley. because the trolleys often jumped the Local shareholders owned the so-called ‘Slate Breaks’, tracks. Two long wooden components which had existed at least since the 17th century. By remain of the crane and a metal piece 1800, Cracken was a substantial enterprise employing which resembles a hinge. It dates from many local men. The quarry was formed to follow the 19th and early 20th century, and was a strike of ‘Rough Rock Flags’ - millstone grit that used for lifting and swinging stones into new positions. splits beautifully into thin pieces perfect for flags and Aided by a 1960s mine survey, I found 10 mine roof slates. Besides surface extraction, better stone entrances or adits. Most are small and rudimentary at a greater depth was extracted by underground although one is notably large and has rope wear to the mining. Unfortunately, as concrete became cheap and upper lip, suggesting stone was hauled from within. accessible, the market for quarried slate reduced, and From historic photographs and mine surveys the most the quarry closed in the 1920s. significant adit was just behind the winding wheel. It My survey recorded the location, type, measurements was a large, square, supported entrance and led to a and condition of features and a desk-based assessment tunnel with rail tracks. It has been entirely blocked and examined the relevant topographic and historic there is no sign of it now. The features recorded during the survey highlight the intensity of the working at Cracken Edge Quarry. While no stone has been extracted here for 100 years, the site provides a glimpse into the life and workings of this Derbyshire quarry. Thanks to the PDNPA, Derek Brumhead, Mr Needham and Mabel Bamford.

Entrance to one of the mine adits

Men at work in the quarry