Hodge Close Quarry

View from the northern end of the quarry looking towards the scree slope

Hodge Close Quarry is a flooded, green slate quarry, nestled amongst some beautiful countryside but with obvious signs of historic mining works having taken place throughout the Tilberthwaite Valley. Mining probably started around the 1780s, and with a few periods of inactivity, continued through until 1964. It is located 4.6 kilometres (2.9 miles) north of Coniston and 12 kilometres (7.4 miles) west of Ambleside. It has become a popular, well-trodden area for hikers and, over the years, a key location for rock climbing, abseiling, and scuba diving. There are sheer drops to the north, west and east, and to the south there is a scree slope, none of which have barriers in place at the edges, but warning signs are placed near the roadside. However, caution is advised at all times. Hodge close is attached to neighbouring Parrock Quarry, also open to the elements, but here nature has fully reclaimed the rocky features of once busy mining operations, giving the appearance of something out of Conan Doyle’s, The Lost World.

The mining operations have produced an enormous amount of spoil and, depending on opinion, created an eyesore in an otherwise picturesque valley with Holme Fell as its nearby peak. The cold, grey spoil is a brooding reminder of the strong history of mining in the area. The scale of the works here was big enough to produce a pile of waste material so large that it has plateaued, and now become part of the fell side in a somewhat bleak but beautiful way. Nature has found a way to claw back what was taken, with silver birch trees growing where slate was deposited. 

As a precursory note, anyone with common sense would know that quarries are incredibly dangerous places, and should heed any notion of climbing rocks or swimming in the cold, murky waters without professional guidance. There is a stark beauty about the place, but this quarry has claimed the lives of people past, and in more recent times. Hodge Close can get busy at times and the car park can fill fairly quickly, but this is a special place for all to enjoy, whether as passers-by or as a sports recreationists. The history of Hodge Close Quarry, and indeed the whole mining valley, is at the very least, intriguing.

View from the south-western side looking towards the opening through to Parrock Quarry

Operational use

There is a strong history of mining across the Lake District. The Tilberthwaite Valley is just one of those areas where mining played a large part in the rural lives of those that called this place home. Hodge Close is a quarry pit with a depth of over 90 metres (300 feet), half of which is below the current water level. During the quarry's operational use, there were at least three different systems installed for lifting and removing the large slabs of slate (clogs). A water balanced lift and a steam crane were used in the latter part of the 19th century. During the 20th century, a Blondin crane was used throughout its operational life, right up until the quarry closed. Initially, the cables were on a north-west to south-east alignment, however, at some point after the First World War, these were realigned north to south. The remains of the water pipe for the water balanced lift, and various support anchors for the Blondin crane are still visible on the periphery; heavy-duty steel, cut and rusted, bygone times of industrial workings, now with an air of peace and tranquillity. 

Old Ordnance Survey map showing Hodge Close Quarry and environs – from Westmorland Sheet XXV.S.E., published 1920

Looking at the Ordnance Survey map published in 1920, and you can clearly see the alignment of the cables, labelled as "Travelling Crane". The rail tracks to the west were used for transporting the useable slate to the open-fronted riving sheds, where the slate was skilfully split (riven), and then shaped (dressed) by hand. The unusable slate was dumped on the spoil. There are multiple "levels" shown too. Levels are tunnels that run at a slight incline, providing access to the internal workings of the quarries. One of the last areas to be worked here was accessed by the level at Bakestone Barrow, shown on the map at the southern end of the quarry. There is a level that can still be accessed, which will provide the adventurer entry inside the quarry. This was the access level where much of the slate was removed using the water balanced lift. The opening of the tunnel is situated on the western side at the foot of the spoil, accessed from the northern end of the car park. The caveat is the tunnel is relatively low in height and contains water up to the knee. Protective headwear and a bright LED torch are essential as the tunnel is very dark, and the rocks are jagged. At the end of the tunnel there is a small opening and some scaffold ladders to decend to a lower level. 

On the bridge of rock between Hodge Close and Parrock Quarries with possible crane support anchors

Before the Blondin was even installed, the second half of the 19th century saw various mining operations taking place at Hodge Close, all of which were leased from the Landowners, the Dukes of Buccleuch. The site we know today has changed dramatically since then. It is impossible to say where these other quarries were located with any certainty. Suffice to say, the various, smaller workings would have made Hodge Close look very different to its modern day counterpart. During the 1870s, multiple levels were being worked on simultaneously in search of the right band of rock, which eventually, a sizeable amount was found deeper down. This was worked successfully as an underground operation (closehead), situated below the already existing upper efforts. Hodge Close was to become an even bigger operation, and the area changed dramatically from this point onwards. The roof of the closehead was removed (a process called open-topping), and the metamorphosis to open pit was the next natural stage of its evolution.

The Blondin crane

The spoil heaps, which have become as much a part of the landscape as any natural vista, include a road to the satellite quarries of Klondyke and Peat Field. Further south-west is the quarry of Calf How accessed by a separate road behind Holme Ground cottages. Both Peat Field and Calf How were put to use after the outbreak of the First World War, which saw slate mining as non-essential. Numerous men working at Hodge Close enlisted and went off to serve King and County in whatever capacity was deemed of them at the time. A reduced workforce meant that by September 1915, Hodge Close had to cease operations and the remaining men moved to these smaller operations. It wasn't long before the quarry was flooded, and little maintenance carried by a skeleton crew during the war years meant Hodge Close was slowly deteriorating. Added to this, there were very real dangers of rock falls without any prior warning. On 19 April 1918, after two and a half years of inactivity, the inevitable happened. A catastrophic rockfall saw a vast chunk of rock fall from the western side of the quarry, causing utter annihilation. According to Alastair Cameron's superb book called Slate from Coniston, he writes of the destruction of the hoist, which without, the operation of slate removal from quarry pit is futile:

The debris from the fall was scattered over the galleries, burying the working faces in rubbish, and destroying a considerable amount of plant including a boiler, several pumps and a turbine. But worst of all was the damage to the landing platform onto which blocks from the aerial hoist were deposited. Very little was left of the platform and this, effectively, meant that the aerial hoist could no longer be used.

The hoist Cameron describes is the Blondin, named so after the French tightrope walker and acrobat Charles Blondin. These were fundamental to the removal of rock from deep quarry pits such as that found at Hodge Close. The deeper the pit, the more dangerous the operation became. But they served the purpose with success, lifting large volumes of clog in wagons from the quarry base to ground level at the top of the quarry, where they would be transported by rail to the riving sheds; an operation of hard physical labour, done with skill and practice. The hoist's cables, as mentioned earlier, were originally in a north-west to south east alignment. They were suspended tightly across the quarry and contained the travelling cradle, the piece of kit that allows for horizontal movement across the width of the quarry and vertical movement to the dropping off platform, constructed at the edge of the quarry.

Remains of crane located in the opening between Hodge Close and Parrock Quarries

Accidents and rock falls

At the best of times, pit quarries were generally dangerous places to work. Rock falls were just a part of everyday life for the men that worked in these hazardous places. However, accidents were often enough to be a concern. At the turn of the 20th century there weren't the same health and safety regulations in place, but rock falls varying in size, regardless of what century, were still fairly commonplace and difficult to predict. Hodge Close, and its neighbour, Parrock, had their fair share. One of the biggest rock falls occurred in 1885 when a slab, with an estimated weight of around 1000 tons, came crashing down. Fortunately for all involved, no one was hurt, but there have been others whose luck was less than favourable.

John Casson was just 25 years of age when he was killed on 27 November 1901, after a large mass of rock fell from the side and buried him. Another tragedy was that of 50 year old Joseph Dixon who, on 8 September 1932, was killed instantly when 30-40 ton rock fell on him in the quarry. A father and son, both in employment at Hodge Close, were killed 22 years apart: John Brockbank on 20 July 1911, and his son Ralph Brockbank, on 9 November 1933. Both men saw their last from accidents, the former by rock falling from a Blondin waggon, the later struck by rock from an explosion. Not all injuries came from rock falls. There were other casualties across all the mining operations in the Tilberthwaite Valley, proving just how dangerous the job was.

Nearby quarries

Although shown as Hodge Close Quarries on the map, there are in fact several other satellite quarries, including the Calf How, Peat Field, and Klondyke quarries. From the southern end of Hodge Close, there is a clear and unobstructed view to the connecting Parrock Quarry. This, too, has an interesting history, having started out as an underground operation that eventually was open-topped, resulting in the open pit we see today.

Access and parking

Access is via the A593 between Skelwith Bridge and Coniston. There are two turns fairly close to each other. One is for Tilberthwaite and the other for Hodge Close. If coming from Coniston, it is the 2nd left turn. If coming from Skelwith Bridge and Ambleside, it is the 1st right. (SD 31412 99736,

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) From the turn, it is approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) up a narrow lane, which weaves through woodland, passing the Holme Ground cottages, which were built for quarry workers in the 1880s. The road eventually summits, then descends to the car park. There is parking for a maximum of 20 vehicles. Large rocks have been put in place to limit the number of vehicles that can park here. There is no turning or vehicular access beyond the end of the car park, except for residents and holiday cottages.

Sources

• Cameron, Alastair (1996). Slate from Coniston. Barrow in Furness: Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society.

References

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