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Cool Scar Quarry

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Cool Scar Quarry
A sheer quarry face with green grass at the tops and a hollow square below the cliff face
Cool Scar Quarry
Map
Interactive map of Cool Scar Quarry
Location
LocationKilnsey
CountyNorth Yorkshire
CountryEngland
Coordinates54°06′18″N 2°03′04″W / 54.1049°N 2.0510°W / 54.1049; -2.0510[1]
Production
ProductsLimestone
TypeQuarry
History
Openedc. 1880
Closed1998
Owner
CompanySee list

Cool Scar Quarry (or Coolscar Quarry)[2] was a quarry in Kilnsey, North Yorkshire, England. It produced agricultural and crushed limestone from c. 1880 to 1998, and in its later years was a valuable source of stone to produce magnesia. The old quarry workings are hidden from view behind (to the west of) Kilnsey Crag, which is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

History

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The quarry is situated 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the south-west of the village of Kilnsey in Upper Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.[3][4][5] It is hidden beyond Kilnsey Crag with a surface level at 289 metres (948 ft) above sea level, and worked limestone from the Cove Limestone Member of the Malham Formation.[6][7] The name derives from the Old Norse meaning the stock enclosure/hill with cows and Sker, meaning just as it sounds, a scar or cliff.[8] There is no authentic record of when the quarry started operating, however, it is recognised as being one of the first quarries in the Dales to be mechanised after it acquired a steam-powered jaw crusher to replace manual breaking of stones in the 1880s.[9] From the late 1940s until the early 1960s, the quarry specialised in agricultural limes, winning approval for the plant needed to work the quarry face by arguing that if they did not quarry there, local farmers would have to travel over 80 kilometres (50 mi) to acquire lime for their fields.[10]

At the point of the first public inquiry in 1983, the quarry covered an area of 10 acres (4 ha) and was only 100 yards (91 m) west of the cliff-face of Kilnsey Crag.[11] The quarry plant and production buildings used to be located above the quarry, but they were moved inside the quarry in the 1960s hiding them from view.[12] The quarry produced a high-purity limestone which was processed into magnesia, but aggregate from the quarry was also used locally.[13][14] Due to the nature of the high-purity limestone and continued expansion of the quarry, the matter of the quarry's expansion was debated in the Houses of Parliament in the 1980s.[15][16]

Kilnsey from Conistone. The top of the quarry can be seen on the centre left

After an initial public inquiry, the quarry owners were given permission to extend the quarry in 1983 and were limited to an output of 100,000 tonnes (110,000 tons) annually.[17] The period of the first inquiry took so much time, that by 1985, the previous agreements on the quarries expansion and production rates had expired, and the quarry operators expanded the quarry without the proper permission. They justified this by saying that they had exhausted their permitted reserves and were "forced" to dig into the proposed new area whilst awaiting a planning decision.[18]

In 1987, the National Park Authority granted the owners an 8-acre (3.2 ha) extension subject to "stringent" environmental considerations.[19] Part of the reason for the quarry's survival was the need to supply limestone feedstock to a chemical plant in the north-east of England. This was limited to a ten-year period with a maximum supply of 175,000 tonnes (193,000 tons) per year.[20] However, soon after the extension was granted, the magnesia plant changed its contract to another supplier from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the quarry sold its products as aggregate.[21] The quarry was finally closed in 1998, and had latterly supported 20 jobs; ten in the quarry and ten jobs in hauling the quarried stone away.[22][23]

Post closure, the quarry was partially remediated and returned to nature, however, the verticality of the walls have been described as "not being conducive to plant colonisation."[24][3] The quarry site is almost entirely surrounded by the Malham-Arncliffe SSSI.[25][26]

Owners

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References

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  1. ^ "Cool Scar quarry, Kilnsey, Conistone with Kilnsey, Craven, North Yorkshire, England, UK". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  2. ^ "Coolscar Quarry, Wharfedale (Hansard, 1 April 1985)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  3. ^ a b Johnson, David (2016). Quarrying in the Yorkshire Pennines : an illustrated history. Stroud: Amberley. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4456-5367-9.
  4. ^ "Coolscar Permission". Craven Herald and Pioneer. Vol. 47, no. 12. 13 March 1987. p. 12. ISSN 0961-1908.
  5. ^ Berry, Geoffrey (30 September 1982). "Threat to Wharfedale". Country Life. CLXXII (4, 441). London: IPC: 962. ISSN 0045-8856.
  6. ^ Murray, D. W. (1983). The limestone and dolomite resources of the country around Settle and Malham, North Yorkshire: With notes on the hard rock resources of the Horton-in-Ribblesdale area ; description of parts of 1:50000 geological sheets 50 and 60. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 30. ISBN 0-11-884326-5.
  7. ^ Waters, C. N. "Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) carbonates of the southern Askrigg Block, North Yorkshire, UK" (PDF). nora.nerc.ac.uk. p. 10. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  8. ^ Johnson, David (1996). Discovery walks in the Yorkshire Dales: the southern Dales. Wilmslow: Sigma Leisure. pp. 6, 184. ISBN 1850584680.
  9. ^ Johnson 2010, p. 192.
  10. ^ a b c Johnson 2010, p. 193.
  11. ^ "Dales test case for national parks". The Guardian. 5 September 1983. p. 2. ISSN 0261-3077.
  12. ^ Goldthorpe, Ian (1998). Grassington and the Surrounding Villages Towards the Millennium. Grassington: Dales Book Centre. p. 144. ISBN 9780953254101.
  13. ^ "Quarry test for national parks". The Times. No. 61637. 14 September 1983. p. 12. ISSN 0140-0460.
  14. ^ Hirst, Matthew (15 November 1996). "Quarry fears". Craven Herald & Pioneer. p. 18.
  15. ^ "Coolscar Limestone Quarry, Yorkshire Dales - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  16. ^ "Coolscar Quarry - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  17. ^ "Quarry's life is extended". Telegraph & Argus. 24 March 1987. p. 9. ISSN 0307-3610.
  18. ^ "Quarry frustration?". Craven Herald and Pioneer. Vol. 46, no. 1, 045. 18 April 1986. p. 8. ISSN 0961-1908.
  19. ^ "Quarry compromise". Craven Herald and Pioneer. Vol. 44, no. 861. 17 September 1982. p. 8. ISSN 0961-1908.
  20. ^ Wright, Norman Geography (1986). The Yorkshire Dales. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 28. ISBN 0715387022.
  21. ^ Bloodworth, A. J., ed. (2004). ‘Industrial Minerals’: Issues for Planning Review of Planning Issues relevant to some Non-Energy Minerals other than Aggregates in England. Keyworth: British Geological Survey. p. 82. ISBN 0-85272-499-3.
  22. ^ Johnson, David (2008). "Excavation of a seventeenth-century lime kiln at Kilnsey, North Yorkshire". Memoirs (86). Keighley: Northern Mines Research Society: 32. ISSN 0308-2199.
  23. ^ Fell, Julia (1 November 1996). "Society opposes mineral plans". Craven Herald & Pioneer. p. 5. ISSN 0961-1908.
  24. ^ Atkinson, David (2004). Weathering, slopes and landforms. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 124. ISBN 0340816902.
  25. ^ "County: North Yorkshire Site Name: Malham-Arncliffe" (PDF). designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2026.
  26. ^ "Sites of Special Scientific Interest (England) Malham-Arncliffe". naturalengland-defra.opendata.arcgis.com. Retrieved 28 April 2026.
  27. ^ a b c d "Cool Scar Quarry". archaeologydataservice.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  28. ^ a b Johnson 2010, pp. 192–193.
  29. ^ "Workmates farewell". Craven Herald and Pioneer. Vol. 33, no. 397. 6 March 1970. p. 14. OCLC 751637778.

Sources

[edit]
  • Johnson, David (2010) [2002]. Limestone industries of the Yorkshire Dales (2 ed.). Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-4456-0060-4.
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