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Harpur Hill Quarry

EngvarB from April 2020High Peak, DerbyshireLakes of DerbyshireQuarries in England
Harpur Hill quarry blue lagoon
Harpur Hill quarry blue lagoon

Harpur Hill Quarry is a disused limestone quarry on Harpur Hill, Derbyshire, England. Limestone was extracted there from 1835 to 1952 for lime burning at lime kilns to produce quicklime. The quarry was used by the Royal Air Force as a chemical weapons storage depot during the Second World War, the largest such depot in the United Kingdom. Afterwards a number of captured German chemical munitions were disposed of at the site by burning, which was only partially successful. The RAF depot closed in 1960 and the site is now vacant. A small part of the abandoned quarry has flooded to become a quarry lake. Its water has a very high pH, that is, it is very alkaline, owing to the presence of caustic chemicals that are leaching from the waste left from the lime burning. The lake water has a vivid blue colour due to the scattering of light by finely dispersed particles of calcium carbonate. Despite signs warning of the health risks the lake became a popular tourist destination and swimming spot. The local High Peak Borough Council dyed the water black in 2013, 2016 and 2020 in an attempt to deter swimmers.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Harpur Hill Quarry (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Harpur Hill Quarry
Solomans Court, High Peak

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.2336 ° E -1.9043 °
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Solomans Court

Solomans Court
SK17 9HP High Peak
England, United Kingdom
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Harpur Hill quarry blue lagoon
Harpur Hill quarry blue lagoon
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Harpur Hill
Harpur Hill

Harpur Hill is a small village on the outskirts of Buxton, Derbyshire, England. It is in the Cote Heath ward of the High Peak Borough Council. It has a primary school, a park, a pub, a working men's club and a Methodist church. From 1938 to 1969, the RAF Maintenance Unit 28 was based at Harpur Hill and it included the RAF Mountain Rescue Team for the Peak District. RAF Harpur Hill was established as an underground munitions store. Tunnels were dug out to house munitions and ordnance. When the RAF left the tunnels were used as a mushroom farm. When the tunnels closed they were sold to a group of local businessmen and used as a cold store for cheese; a warehouse was built for dry and bonded wines and spirits. A number of local hauliers provided the transport for these goods. One of the hauliers was Lomas Distribution which was bought out by Christian Salvesen and was a major employer in the area; it later sold the site to French transport company Norbert Dentressangle. Many of the bunkers can still be seen in the surrounding hillside.The Health and Safety Executive Laboratory is not far from Harpur Hill. From 1916 to 1918 the site housed The Frith Artillery Range. A railway was constructed with old London Underground Jubilee Line trains which were used to reconstruct the 7 July 2005 London bombings. A red flag is flown at the laboratory when an explosion is imminent.Also nearby is Far Hill Quarry, now flooded, where swimming is discouraged by the authorities as unsafe due to the high pH level of the water.Harpur Hill is the base of Harpur Club & Harpur Hill FC, and of Buxton Rugby Union Club. The tops of the rugby club's goal posts are the highest in the country.

Staden, Derbyshire
Staden, Derbyshire

Staden is a small hamlet (of just a few buildings) on the southern outskirts of Buxton, Derbyshire, lying between Harpur Hill and Cowdale. It was occupied in Neolithic, Roman and medieval times. Staden is close to the limestone hilltop of Staden Low whose summit is 367 m (1,204 ft) above sea level.Staden Low prehistoric earthwork is in a field on the western side of Staden Low hill. It is in the form of a slightly raised circular bank (over 50m across) with a smaller adjoining rectangular bank (which is a unique enclosure feature of British henges). Neolithic artefacts were discovered during excavations in 1926 by Mr R. Woolescroft, including a polished stone axe head and many fragments of knapped flint. Further excavations by Dr G. Makepeace in the 1980s uncovered Neolithic pottery sherds and pieces of deer antlers. The finds are on display in Buxton Museum. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument. Aerial LIDAR image of Staden Enclosure by the Environment Agency. Staden is one mile south of the Roman town of Aquae Arnemetiae (Roman Buxton) and there was a Roman farm at Staden (around the present Colt Croft Farm). The fields around Staden have rich volcanic soils for farming. Excavations by Dr Makepeace in the 1980s found the platforms of several buildings, walls, field enclosure banks, quern grinding stones, pottery, animal bones and jewellery. The potter's stamp of Sepuminus dates the pottery to 100–130 AD. A hypocaust tile found in the farm house demonstrates that it had an underfloor heating system. The stone platform of a 12th-century medieval longhouse (22m long) was also identified at the same site in 1989. Documents record Staden as a farming settlement in 1101 AD.There are the remains of an old quarry and lime kiln immediately south of the hilltop.In 1896 Buxton Cemetery on Ashbourne Road was consecrated on 12 acres of land on Staden Moor. The gothic-style cemetery building (with a central archway and a mortuary chapel on either side), the caretaker's house and the registrar's office were designed by the town surveyor Joseph Hague. The tombstone of the Buxton archaeologist Micah Salt from 1915 is a replica of the Anglo-Saxon cross in Eyam cemetery and it is a Grade II listed structure.The new Buxton fire station and rescue centre (opened in 2011) and Staden industrial estate are on the A515 road past the cemetery. Buxton Brewery was established in 2009 and is based on Staden Lane.The Midshires Way and the Peak District Boundary Walk long-distance footpaths run along the same west–east route through Staden.

Solomon's Temple, Buxton
Solomon's Temple, Buxton

Solomon's Temple, also known as Grinlow Tower, is a Victorian folly on the summit of Grin Low hill, near the spa town of Buxton in the Derbyshire Peak District.On 23 February 1894, a meeting at Buxton Town Hall decided to rebuild a landmark tower that had been built by Solomon Mycock, of the Cheshire Cheese Hotel, in the early 19th century, and of which only a few stones remained. The Local Board vice-chairman had talked with the seventh Duke of Devonshire's agent and decided that the reconstruction was feasible if the townspeople would donate sufficient money. Sketches were submitted by architects W. R. Bryden and G. E. Garlick. By that May, the plans were confirmed by the Duke of Devonshire, and it was well known that the site was of prehistoric importance. In June 1894, the seventh Duke of Devonshire subscribed £25 towards building the folly. Buxton had already subscribed £50. The foundation stone was laid by Colonel Sidebottom, M.P., on 31 May 1896, witnessed by a large crowd, and the tower was opened by Victor Cavendish in September 1896. The tower was restored in 1988 by public subscription.The structure is a 20-foot-high (6.1 m), two-storey tower built on top of a Bronze Age barrow, sitting on top of a ridge at a height of 440 metres (1,440 ft) above sea level. From the open top of the tower there are good 360-degree views over the town and the surrounding countryside and parts of the Peak District. The tower does not contain anything other than the staircase to the top. It is a Grade II listed building.