The North Anston Quarries - Part 1

 

Rubbly dolomitic limestone at Greenlands Quarry

During my planned walk from Laughton-en-le-Morthen to South Anston, I had so far encountered many historic buildings constructed in dolomitic limestone from the Permian Cadeby Formation at St. John’s church, the hamlet of Throapham and in Dinnington Conservation Area.

 

The geology en route from Laughton-en-le-Morthen to South Anston

Continuing south from Dinnington towards North Anston along Nursery Road (B6060), I turned off to have a quick look at Greenlands Park, a public green space and playing fields set next to part of the escarpment that was once extensively quarried for lime and building stone - including that used to rebuild the Palace of Westminster in London, after it burned down in 1834.

 

A LIDAR map of the old quarries in North Anston

 

The area covered by quarries and limekilns was clearly marked on the 1950 edition of the Ordnance Survey map, but it was redeveloped for housing during the later part of the C20. Although only glimpses of the quarry face can now be seen in the back gardens of houses on Limekilns, a LIDAR map clearly shows the position of old workings.

 

An exposure of limestone in Greenlands Park (2014)

In Greenlands Park, the extensive southern 3 metre high face of the Greenland Quarry can still be seen and, although much of it has become quite overgrown since I first visited it in December 2014, there are plenty of good exposures where a geologist can study its details.

 

A section of the Greenlands Quarry face

The lowest part of the section exposes a metre of massive limestone that in my opinion, having surveyed very many stone built historic buildings and worked as a building restoration contractor, would probably provide stone that is suitable for general building.

 

An exposure of dolomitic limestone in Greenlands Park (2021)

The strata above it, however, rapidly change to irregular and occasionally rubbly beds, generally no more than 50-100 mm thick and these would have only be suitable for burning to produce lime and would not have been suitable for building stone.

 

A detail of the dolomitic limestone (2021)

 

The specimens I obtained are yellowish in colour and finely granular when viewed with a hand lens and contain many fine black specks that are probably manganese oxide minerals, like I have encountered before at Cadeby Rattles and Warmsworth Park in Doncaster.

Samples of dolomitic limestone obtained from Greenlands Park