BYGONE INDUSTRIES OF THE PEAK: ASHFORD MARBLE
This is one of a series of articles published in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, on 5th June 1995 (p1 & back page), and
reproduced by kind permission of its author, Julie Bunting.
The series is now available as a fully-illustrated paperback, published in 2006
by Wildtrack Publishing of Sheffield (ISBN 1-904098-01-0)
BYGONE INDUSTRIES OF THE PEAK: ASHFORD MARBLE
Strictly speaking, Ashford marble is not a marble but an impure form of
limestone naturally impregnated with a bitumen. Because it changes from
grey to a glossy black when polished it found popularity as a decorative
material. Its existence was known in prehistoric times, for a dressed
slab was found in a tumulus on Fin Cop above Monsal Dale.
Moving into recorded history, in 1580 Bess of Hardwick, always loyal to
local products, used Ashford marble for the chimney piece of the Great
High Presence Chamber at Hardwick - reputedly the most beautiful room in
Europe.
Just over a hundred years later her great-great grandson, the 4th Earl
of Devonshire, used the marble for interior building work during his
major rebuilding of Chatsworth. In the 1830s, the 6th Duke had massive
marble doorways executed at Ashford for his new wing at Chatsworth, as
well as ornamental gritstone balustrades for the stairs and external
battlements.
Ashford marble mill had been set up by Henry Watson on the River Wye in
1748. Six years earlier he had bought out a marble mason's works at
Bakewell but the mill at Ashford became his main concern. By 1847 the
Bakewell mill was being operated by John Lomas, who held the lease on
another black marble quarry, beside the Bakewell/Monyash road, from the
Duke of Rutland.
Glover's History and Gazetteer of Derbyshire (1829) refers to
marble works at Ashford and Derby, where the material 'is wrought into
articles of domestic elegance and into monuments, chimney pieces are
sold at various prices, from 30s to upwards of £60, and beautiful tables
of black marble, enriched with elegant engravings, are also made there.'
At that time, etching and engraving were the only methods used to
decorate the marble.
The industry continued to thrive and in 1832 a Mr Oldfield began mining
another source, in Rookery Plantation on the other side of the river.
Demand was set to soar, for within a few years inlay work was introduced
and the glowing floral and geometric designs were an immediate success.
At the Great Exhibition of 1851 the quality and beauty of Ashford marble
put even prestigious Italian workmanship in the shade. Trinkets and
jewellery, paperweights and snuff-boxes, crosses, obelisks and
barometers were on sale as far as the capital itself.
A great deal of the inlay work was carried out by homeworkers in Ashford
but workshops were also established in Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton and
Castleton - all busy tourist centres with a constant demand for
souvenirs.
The craft utilised coloured minerals from various localities. From
Nettler Dale in Sheldon came rosewood marble - white with reddish bands
which produced the effect of grained wood when polished. Bird's Eye, a
fossil-bearing rock cut to show the cross-sections of crinoids, came
from Wetton and Sheldon, and a mottled and veined grey marble, varying
in tint from faint blue to deep azure-purple, from Monyash. Different
shades of barytes were brought from Arbor Low, Bradwell and Castleton,
which inevitably also supplied Blue John.
The most prized marble was the rare Duke's Red, found in very limited
supplies in the Ashford locality. The entire supply was stored at
Chatsworth on the orders of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, since which time
details of its source became lost. In 1970, Duke's Red marble was
incorporated in the Cavendish crest - a serpent - laid near the Great
Display House at Chatsworth.
OBLIGED TO MINE
The main source of black marble was Arrock Quarry, beside the road to
Sheldon. The quarry was described by William Adam in The Gem of the
Peak (1843). Adam had been shown around the marble mill, with its
massive wooden machines driven by powerful waterwheels, before crossing
the Wye - 'a turbulent stream' - over a plank to the quarry, which 'had
a bearing of at least forty feet above it of bad measures, as they are
called, and the good black consists of nine beds, varying from three to
nine inches in thickness.... It is difficult to raise a perfect slab of
more than six or seven feet long, and from two to five feet wide. The
bearing above the quarry is now so great that they have been obliged to
mine it, and support the roofs by the offal stone and strong posts,
which makes a visit to it now more interesting.'
The blocks of stone were taken across the river to the mill to be sawn
to size, ground and polished. By the time Adams' book was published, the
plank over the Wye had finally been replaced by a bridge.
Ashford marble remained popular throughout the reign of Queen Victoria -
the widowed Queen herself set the vogue for black adornments and
jewellery. Towards the end of the century, turbines were installed at
the mill but the industry had already peaked and tastes were changing.
The mill and quarry closed in 1905 though inlay work continued for a few
more years until the reserves of marble were used up. The site of the
marble works was partly lost in construction of the A6.
Today examples of the craft are prized by stately homes, museums and
collectors. In Ashford parish church stands a prize-winning table of
1882 to remind the village and its visitors of a time when local skills
carried the name of Ashford to all the fashionable cities of Britain.
© Julie Bunting
From "The Peak Advertiser", 5th June 1995.
© Copyright GENUKI and Contributors 1996-2008, &c.
GENUKI is a registered trade mark of the charitable trust GENUKI, see
About GENUKI as an Organisation
Are you lost in the Genuki hierarchy or arrived here from a Search Engine?
If so, use the up-arrow(s) at the top of the page to go up the hierarchy.
URL of this page: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/BygoneIndustries/AshfordMarble.html
[Created 19 Jun 2003. Last updated 15 Nov 2009 - 13:08 by Rosemary Lockie]
