Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Penny Rigg Quarries, Tilberthwaite

This great gash dominates the lower slopes of Wetherlam. Sandwiched between Tilberthwaite Gill and the remains of the Tilberthwaite copper mill, the 18th-century quarrymen were seeking a band of fine quality silver-grey slate. The slate is in a vertical bedding plane meaning extraction is very economical with minimal gunpowder needed. The slates were carted to Coniston and then loaded onto barges for transporting south. Some quarrying took place as late as the 20th-century but it was all quiet by 1935 when Arthur Ransome explored the workings, inspiring Slater Bob’s Mine in his children’s book ‘Pigeon Post’.




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