BYGONE INDUSTRIES OF THE PEAK: LIME BURNING
This is one of a series of articles published in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, on 11th Aug 1997 (p3), 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: LIME BURNING
The process of lime burning has a long history in the White Peak,
where the necessary raw material, limestone, occurs in great
abundance. The end product, lime or quicklime, has many
applications; it was used in plaster work by the Egyptians about
four thousand years ago, whilst the Greeks and Romans used lime
in making cement and mortar. This latter use was recognised in a
Roman bath which came to light at Buxton many years ago.
For hundreds of years lime has been or enormous importance in
agriculture, where it is used to improve sour soils. One of the
earliest references occurs in The Boke of Husbandrye
written by Fitzherbert in the early 1500s. In the middle of the
following century fourteen lime kilns were recorded at Dove Holes
alone, apparently used according to local requirements.
Constructed of stone, a kiln was fuelled with wood, peat and
furze and filled from the top with alternate layers of fuel and
broken limestone. The kiln was lit through an opening at its
base, starting the burning process which reduces stone to lime.
After a burning period of five to ten days, followed by a couple
of days' cooling, lime was drawn out from the bottom of the kiln.
One common type of kiln, the pye kiln, was usually built by an
individual farmer, often on common land, and therefore only in
intermittent use. Sites are commemorated in the common field name
of Kiln close.
After taking enough lime for his own needs, a farmer could sell
his surplus to other farmers. From the 17th century it was also
in demand for use as a flux by smelters of lead and iron. Lime
had, and perhaps still has, a domestic use too. Mixed with water
it becomes slaked lime, used as a whitewash on the walls of
cottages and outhouses all around the country.
Lime burning depended on a good source of wood but as supplies
diminished, coal came into use. Coal was already being utilised
by the early 17th century around Axe Edge, which had the twin
assets of coal seams and developing limestone quarries. The
region became a major lime burning centre, with many dozens of
kilns concentrated on Grin Hill.
During the 18th and 19th centuries. Grin Hill was dotted with
independently operated lime kilns, interspersed with large
hillocks of ash waste which hardened as it weathered. Some were
hollowed out into simple dwellings of up to four rooms by the
poorer workers, who lived there rent free. For many the only
natural light came from the 'chimney' - a round hole in the roof
- but in winter the occupants benefited from the warmth of the
kilns and one resident lived to the age of 93.
The roofs of some ash houses were covered with turf and one
visitor recorded seeing one of them being grazed by a cow.
MURKY VOLUMES
No longer was lime burning confined to occasional work on the
farm, or even to 'sale' kilns which supplemented a farmer's
income. In order to meet a constant demand from manufacturing
industries, 'running' kilns were introduced. These were kept
working day and night.
From the late 18th century Stoney Middleton had a deserved
reputation as an unhealthy place, lying as it did under a
constant pall of acrid smoke from large-scale lime burning
activities. Cart-loads of coal were brought in from Sheffield and
Chesterfield, returning with processed lime. The poet Anna Seward
of Eyam described how natural pinnacles had been broken off the
towering rocks above Middleton Dale for the 'perpetual
consumption of the ever burning lime kilns'. These, she added,
were very impressive by night, 'emitting their livid flames which
seem so many small volcanoes'.
Small Dale left a similar impression on Ebenezer Rhodes who wrote
in Peak Scenery: 'The burning of lime here is a
considerable trade; and the kilns used for the purpose are
situated at the bottom of the dell, one side of which was formed
by the rocks where we stood; of the other, aided by a transient
light emitted from the fires of the lime-kilns, we caught
occasionally an uncertain glimpse ... the whole dale indeed was
one immense cauldron steaming with smoke, that at intervals was
partially illumined by momentary gleams and flashes from the
fires below - then curling into mid-air, it rolled over our heads
in murky volumes.'
NEW MARKETS
Advances in transport systems further boosted the lime burning
industry. By 1799 both the Peak Forest Canal and the Peak Forest
Tramway were in use and resourceful operators set up numerous
kilns along the canal banks. Boat-loads of stone and coal were
brought in and shipments of lime sent out. In 1830 the
Macclesfield Canal opened, linking the Peak Forest and Trent and
Mersey Canals. This gave access to new markets, not only the
chemical and steel industries but also the building trade with
its constant need for mortar in constructing mills, factories,
warehouses and housing.
Lime burners were soon to take advantage of the railway, which in
1863 reached Buxton with a siding at Dove Holes. As with the
canal systems, lime kilns were established alongside the
railways. The railway was a major factor in the expansion of
quarrying in Great Rocks Dale and Miller's Dale. A limeworks
opened in Miller's Dale in 1878, with a purpose-built system
whereby stone and fuel was tipped into the top of the kiln from
wagons and the lime shovelled out at the bottom to be sieved and
taken away. Two restored kilns are maintained by the Peak Park
but the vast crushing plant of 1914 is derelict. Work ceased here
in 1930.
Eye-witnesses accounts of lime burning have been set down by Peak
Dale Local History Group in More Than Just Dust (1989). At
the turn of the century more than forty kilns provided a variety
of jobs in the Peak Dale area. There were the burners who managed
two kilns each and whose wages depended on the amount of lime
they produced. Drawers, or pikers, extracted the lime from 'eyes'
at the bottom of the kilns, after which it was sorted from the
ash by pickers and taken to the railway wagons. A lad's first job
might be as a bull head knocker, a bull head being a stone which
had not quite burned through so that it was still hard in the
middle. As much lime as possible was knocked off before the raw
stone went into the waste.
Limestone in the Buxton area is the purest in massive formation
in the world and although small scale lime burning may be a
bygone industry, giant plants now supply the massive needs of
agriculture and industry. Lime is still essential for removing
impurities during steel manufacture, in building and oil refinery
and in preparations for road-building work. The old, redundant
field kilns have not completely disappeared from the Peak
landscape and many can be seen from public footpaths,
occasionally preserved from further decay and identifiable by
means of an interpretative board.
© Julie Bunting
From "The Peak Advertiser", 11th Aug 1997.
© Copyright Julie Bunting, GENUKI and Contributors 1995-2008, &c.
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[Created 8 May 2003. Last updated 15 Nov 2009 - 13:07 by Rosemary Lockie]
