Groby quarry

Local quarry used for emergency services exercise

December 2015    Around 40 people were involved in a multi-agency emergency services exercise that was undertaken at Bluebell Quarry located at the Midland Quarry Products Asphalt plant on Newtown Linford Lane. The participants were from the Leicestershire Police Tactical Support Group, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service Technical Rescue Team and Leicestershire Search and Rescue. Three specialist teams were able to train and work together in a live environment that posed credible hazards, allowing preparation for worst-case scenarios prior to any actual emergency.

The scenario involved two missing persons and a third casualty that was a passer-by. The initial response was the arrival of a Police Search Advisor to develop a search plan of the area. The next stage of the search then involved Leicestershire Search and Rescue, whose primary role is to provide specialist resources to the County’s emergency services. Two teams were deployed around the top of the quarry and the three casualties were quickly identified.

“Due to the casualty locations (two being on different quarry faces and one in the water) specialist rescue teams were required,” explained a spokesperson. “These were made up of Rope Rescue and Water Rescue trained personnel from both Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Leicestershire Police and the casualties were successfully recovered by a combination of inflatable boats and rope rescue equipment.”

Bluebell Quarry

The Bluebell Quarry, named after the carpet of bluebells that surrounded it in spring commenced operations shortly after the end of World War I. However, the quarry closed shortly afterwards as the stone quality was deemed to be too low; it was imaginatively named the Chocolate Factory after the brown colour of the stone extracted. It lies to the west of the main site today.

Dr Annette McGrath has written an interesting article for the Mercian Geologist on local quarries entitled “The Rock Quarries of Charnwood Forest” which includes references to the research of Groby historian David Ramsey. Dr Mcgrath is a structural geologist, sedimentologist, geochemist and author. She is the part-time Lead Associate Lecturer for the online postgraduate diploma on The Geology of Yorkshire and Northern England in the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of York. In 2013, Annette also provided ad-hoc consultancy for the Charnwood Forest Heritage Lottery Fund partnership bid. “Charnwood Forest - 600 million years in the making” focussed on how the unique and internationally important geology of Charnwood Forestdirectly influenced everything that is known to be special about the landscape, history, archaeology, biodiversity, industrial and cultural heritage of Charnwood. You can read her article online at http://www.emgs.org.uk. Enter “charnwood rock quarries” into the search box and the link will be the third unsponsored search result.

August 2015

Do you know where Groby Junction is?

August is the middle of the holiday season and no doubt a number of readers will be visiting North Wales. Most will probably be unaware of the link between a small village near Blaenau Ffestiniog and Groby, but the fact that they are both in quarrying areas should be a good enough clue.

Anyone travelling on the Ffestiniog Railway(FR) this summer is likely to pass Groby Junction near the small village of Tanygrisiau, where a section of the branch line is probably still in the road surface. The line from Groby Junction was reputedly the most difficult to work of any FR branch, and was prone to accidents. Wikipedia says that the railway served a cluster of quarries around the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Most of these were slate quarries, although granite quarries and zinc mines were also connected by narrow gauge tramways to the railway.

Local historian David Ramsey researched Groby's Welsh connection for his book Groby and its Railways. “The information I managed to acquire on this quarry located is very fragmented and largely gathered from interviews,” explained David. “Approximately 130 men worked at the quarry, 37 of whom were stone masons. The Ffestiniog Railway was responsible for collecting and delivering wagons to the lower level of the Welsh quarry site. I was told the Welsh quarry's Groby connection had begun in 1921 but no mention of it appears until the accounts sheet of 1927 when it made a loss of £3,458; in 1928 the loss was £6,448.”

In 1930 the branch line closed but the quarry continued until 1937 when it eventually ran out of cash. “Because of the disconnection with the Ffestiniog Railway, the quarry found coal supplies for their steam powered plant came to a halt and at times wood had to be used. On closure some plant and stone was transported back to Groby using two Foden steam lorries; the time taken for the journey was nearly a week. The stone was easily worked and the kerb edgings brought to Groby after the Welsh quarry's closure are remembered as being considerably longer than the local edgings - due no doubt to the more easily worked texture of the Welsh granite, ” David added.

By 1979 the quarry was being used as a car breakers yard. In Feb 2003 work began in the old Welsh Groby Granite quarry on designing and building for the FR a rail mounted cherry picker which was a self contained, skid mounted unit bolted onto an old Bedford CF Van which had been dumped in the scrap yard. The vehicle obtained approval and on 30 Nov 04 the Cherry Picker was used for the first time when a fault in the overhead route between Tanygrisiau and Glan y Pwll had to be fixed.

So if you travel on the Ffestiniog Railway this summer look out for Tanygrisiau and Groby Junction. David's book was published in 1982 so write to the Spotlight as he would be delighted to hear of any changes. If you want to see more online including photographs just Google groby granite tanygrisiau. And if you are interested in learning more about Groby's railways you can buy a copy of David's book by calling him on 0116 229 0542.

The Charnwood Forest Quarry Studies

A look at the data for Groby quarry

For those with an interest in the history of Groby there is a lot of information to be found online. And now it is great to be able to report what appears to be an exciting addition which has come about as a result of one family's genealogical investigations. It will be of particular interest to Groby families whose ancestors worked in the local quarry.

Anyone who has looked into their family history may well have seen two sides of a migratory coin. On the one hand some parts of the family seem to be deeply rooted in a relatively small area, whilst on the other the search for employment took relatives from one part of the country to another as the agricultural workforce shrank and mining, heavy industries and manufacturing flourished. The Charnwood Forest Quarry Studies were initiated when Roger, a great grandson of a worker at Bardon quarry, documented the workers there online after tracing his ancestor. “This produced the interest to expand to all Charnwood Forest quarries. I haven't completed it all because of other projects but as a resource it's there for people to discover,” he explained.

Groby quarry workforce

This extension to the other quarries is good news for Groby as it provides a fascinating picture of the local quarry workforce from 1861 through to 1911. The Charnwood Forest Quarry Studies focuses on the workers and their jobs at the granite quarries of Charnwood Forest from the time census records show their recorded occupations. It's work in progress and records are at various stages of completion. Groby, Bardon Hill, and Mountsorrel are fully documented from 1861-1911 census records and other sources of information, whilst Whitwick is underway.

At each of the 10 year census milestones the site gives an overview, and comments,for example that “By 1861 the initial surge of exporting granite from the quarry was long diminished and there are only 25 workers identified in the Quarry at this time, 18 coming from Groby and 5 from Newtown Linford and 2 from Ratby districts. The foreman of the quarry Joseph Lockwood lives in Newtown Linford.” A table showing the workers names, age, birthplace and occupation follows.

By 1871 the worker population of Groby Quarry has grown fourfold with steam engines driving production and a locomotive to ship granite connecting to the main rail lines. The most common surnames found amongst the 118 strong workforce at that time are Wood(10) and Jordan (8). Ten years on and in 1881 the workforce has increased and stands at 148 men and 20 boys, representing 20% of the population of what is called Ratby cum Groby. Street addresses are also shown for each worker.

In 1891 the workforce is shown as 436 and Wood and Jordan are still the most common surnames. Although most of the workers were born in Leicestershire there are some born as far away as Yorkshire, Northumberland, Scotland and Wales.

“Groby Quarry was of substantial size in 1901,” writes Roger. “The Groby Historical Society web pages suggest that by 1902, Groby granite quarry had on the payroll  546 men and shows 186 men came from Groby, 173 Ratby, 66 Glenfield 58 Newtown Linford, 34 Anstey, 16 Markfield and 13 from Kirby Muxloe.” He has only identified 436 workers but believes this is probably an understatement. The difference is due in part to census enumerators not being specific about occupations and, for example, he has not included an 'engine driver' if the entry does not specify quarry work unless the next census is clearer. “In general 1911 Groby records are much more specific even specifying the Groby Granite Co. as the employer in most cases,” he adds.

By 1911 the numbers employed appear to have dropped to 417 and the Wood family, with 11 members employed, have now been passed by the Smiths(17), the Jordans(16) and the Gearys(14). Between them these four families seem to account for around 14% of the workforce. This census provides very comprehensive information and in addition to the names, birth year, birthplace, marital status and job title we can now see where they lived, often down to the house number.

In addition to all this detail there are descriptions of the working methods and descriptions of the various jobs at the quarry. In all it is a very substantial piece of work and when local Groby historian David Ramsey took a quick look he commented that he was “very impressed” with what he had seen, and that is praise indeed. What makes it even more remarkable is that it seems the work has not been undertaken locally but from the other side of the world.

“I was born in Bilston, Staffs, and emigrated from the UK in 1973. I am a resident of Australia but also live 6 months a year in Canada,” explained Roger. “I am recently retired and a keen English industrial history reader. At the end of the day its a database and so available to anyone that wants to use it for genealogical or research purposes. I get a enquiry from descendants every couple of months or so and try and help but it's really a self helper.”               

Whatever happened to the plan to develop the quarry?

Follow the link and you'll find out...