Bolehill Quarry

Today we visited Bolehill Quarry in Upper Padley, a now derelict quarry overtaken by nature - a swathe of silver birch trees and foxglove flowers, scattered with discarded millstones, along with herds of grazing sheep!  We parked at Grindleford Train Station and followed the path up past Padley Mill and an old pump house building, a fairly long, steep ascent to the quarry. 

Millstones, grindstones and crushing stones have been produced in Bolehill Quarry since the 13th century. The area was mainly quarried for millstones, used for grinding wheat and other grains into flour. Crushing stones were exported to Scandinavia to crush wood into pulp for the paper industry. In 1901 the Derwent Valley Water Act was passed to construct the Howden and Derwent Dams and stone from Bolehill Quarry was used in the construction of these dams. The industry collapsed in the 1930s and the heavy millstones, weighing over one tonne each, were simply abandoned here.

It was a really interesting day and we spent many hours exploring the quarry. In need of a coffee, we started to make our way back down, grateful that it was all downhill back to the car.  However, somehow we managed to take a wrong path and ended up looping round the top end of the quarry and ending up back over at Padley Gorge. From there we followed the river back to Grindleford Train Station and our car. Our easy walk back turned into a much longer and mainly uphill walk back!  When we finally reached the tearoom the hot chocolate and slice of coffee and walnut cake was much needed!!

Extra shots are of the millstones, silver birch trees, sheep and foxgloves.