The Quarries of Little Eaton

Little Eaton stone used in ancient buildings

Quarrying in Little Eaton has probably existed since pre-Roman times. Stone blocks for monumental building were used in the bronze and iron ages. A 10- metre boat loaded with stone blocks, dated c1115 BC, was found south of Derby and such blocks may have been quarried from Little Eaton. However, the first most likely evidence of local stone use was when the wooden fort at Derventio (Little Chester in Derby) was enclosed by a stone wall in c500-600 AD. The closest quarries to this were in Little Eaton.

A large stone sarcophagus, thought to be from c800-900AD was found at St Alkmunds Church in Derby. Since Little Eaton was in St Alkmund’s parish, this may well have been quarried in Little Eaton. It is also likely that millstones for the grinding of corn were quarried locally.

After the Norman conquest, stone buildings became more common: Darley Abbey was the most extensive monastic complex in Derbyshire; Duffield Castle was built in 1177-1189; and Horsley Castle was built 1200-1203. All three were built of local stone.

From then, many structures, including St Alkmund’s Church in Duffield and the neighbouring bridge were built of stone. In 1329, The Dean of Lincoln (who owned the Manor of Little Chester which included Little Eaton) listed a quarry as among his properties and in 1651 there is reference to a water mill and quarry in Eaton Park, with Rowland Litchfield (1569-1650) as one of the “copyholders” (leaseholder).

Quarrying boom in Little Eaton from mid 18th Century

The boom in quarrying began at the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. In Little Eaton, Thomas Tempest converted a corn mill at Peckwash into a paper mill which became one of the largest in Europe, using stone for the building and millstones. Some of the local farmhouses, Elms Farm, Church Farm, Brook Hollow and Park Farm, were rebuilt in stone.  In 1793, the canal from Derby to Little Eaton was constructed with a gangway for horse drawn wagons able to carry stone from local quarries to Derby, Birmingham and beyond.

Wealthy local families, including the Tempests, the Strutts and  Mrs Trowell (daughter of William Woollatt, a partner of Jedidiah Strutt), built grand houses. The quarries became busy and prosperous.

The Life of a Quarryman

The quarries became a central part of the Little Eaton economy. Listed in the 1841 census are 42 men from Little Eaton working in the quarries. There were 34 stone cutters, 6 stone masons, 1 stone labourer and 1 Delver.

Men were expected to start work at 6.30am in the summer and 7.00am in the winter. They worked twelve- hour days with half hour breaks for meals. They were roped down from the top of quarries to loosen stone blocks. They manipulated the blocks weighing several tons with three legged derricks onto railed wagons. They broke the blocks up with hammers as heavy as 28lb and cut them with iron wire saws into smaller blocks. They were then shaped by stone masons for building blocks and loaded into wooden containers. The containers were then transported on horse drawn wagons to the head of the canal.

Quarrymen were heavy drinkers. They drank in the Bell and Harp, The Anchor Inn and the Queen’s Head (called “The Delvers” until about 1840.). On pay days, wives would meet their husbands outside the pubs and take their housekeeping money before the drinking started. Their bitter rivals were the canal boatmen who drank in the New Inn and there were occasional fights between them.

The Friendly Society of the Ancient Order of Druids

In 1839 a group of local quarrymen in Coxbench formed The Horsley Castle Friendly Society of the Ancient Order of Druids and a Little Eaton branch was started shortly afterwards. The society met in village pubs. Men would pay in regular small amounts and receive a grant of a few pounds when they were sick or, if they died, for their funeral benefits. They held an annual parade preceded by a brass band which started at the Bell and Harp, paused at the Anchor for refreshments and ended at the Queen’s Head. The Friendly societies persisted long after the quarries were closed.

Five Quarries

At one time there were a dozen or so quarries dotted around Little Eaton, many of them worked by single families. Over time, the smaller ones closed and centred on five main sites, as shown on the 1881 Ordinance Survey map below

1.       Outwoods

This quarry lies off Rigga lane, behind the row of Blue Mountains Cottages. It was a large quarry with the Tempest family  as copyholders. By 1811, it was leased on to Thomas Barton. The stone was used in the mill and to build Eaton House for the Tempests.

 On the death of John Barton (son of Thomas) in 1875 the quarry was occupied by Thomas Pratt. In 1897, Robert Harvey (married to Sarah Tempest and managing the Tempest estate) advertised for “large quantities of loose rubble stones and sand free for anyone fetching it away.” By 1900, the quarry was listed as “not worked”

The quarry was sold by the Tempest Trust to George Hall in 1948 and then to David Miles, the owner of one of the Blue Mountains Cottages.

2.       Rigga Lane

This quarry lies off the track between Rigga Lane and Eaton Bank. By 1828, Thomas Barton was listed as “scappling” or getting rock from this quarry. By 1835 it was listed as worked by Jesse Rutherford but he went bankrupt in 1838 and Barton took over again. It is reported that St Lukes Church in Little Chester was built from stone from the quarry with John Fryer as a contractor.

At some point in the first part of the 19th century a spur from the gangway was built so that stone could be loaded on to horse drawn wagons and transported to the head of the Derby/Little Eaton canal. A bridge over the entrance to the quarry still exists today. There was a fatal accident at the quarry in 1879. In 1885 the Strutt family (by then the owners) leased it to Alfred Johnson for seven years. From 1900 to 1905 the quarry was worked again by the Barton family and in 1910 WA Smith was using it to mine scythe stones.

The quarry was sold in the 1920s to Ernest Woore. His brother, Peter, was a well- known local architect, who bought Hierons Wood quarry (see below).  At the base of the Rigga Lane quarry he built a house made of wood for Ernest.  The house is still a private residence.

3.       Hierons Wood and Hatherings

The main quarry is situated in the grounds of Hierons Wood, about half way up Vicarage Lane, on the left. At some stage there was a smaller extension into Hatherings Wood, on the right. For both sites The Tempest family were the copyholders. Hierons Wood is named after John Hieron who was ejected from his job as Rector of Breadsall in 1662 because he refused to use the Book of Common Prayer in his preaching. He moved to Little Eaton and his son and grandson built up a significant holding of land around the village.

It is not clear who opened or worked these quarries but there are references to William Hicking, Goodwin and Chambers, Grace and Lyman, John Vickers (1836), and Thomas Siddon (1836). The Grace family were best known for producing scythe stones, used for sharpening tools, and millstones for grinding corn, cider making or for grinding timber into wood pulp for the paper industry. The quarry had closed by 1901.

Peter Woore (see above) bought the Hierons Wood quarry and grounds in the 1920s and built a house of stone (alongside his wooden house at Rigga lane)for himself and his family. It is still a private residence.  Hatherings Wood was bought by Percy Currey, another well-known architect, who built an Arts and Crafts house for his family.

4.       Moor Lane

This extensive quarry is situated on Moor Lane. The Harpur Crewe family from Calke Abbey owned the surrounding area. In 1797, the company constructing the canal from Derby to Little Eaton leased the land from the Harpur Crewes to excavate stone for their work.

There were two main contractors in this area. In 1798, Mark Swinnerton leased part of the quarry for £8 a year to provide stone for the canal and gangway. Mark Swinnerton  was a stone mason involved in several building works in Derby. He died in 1824 at the age of 63 and passed on the business to his son Stephen. By 1836 Stephen, who lived in Little Eaton, was providing stone sleepers for the Midlands Counties Railway Company (ie London to Birmingham ) and in 1848 sleepers for the Midland railway. He also ran a well- established stone yard in Derby and shipped the stone there with his own canal boats. He died in 1876 at the age of 93.

In 1802, John Welch is recorded as leasing another part of the quarry in 1809 he advertised “all sorts of stone for different uses - flagstones for floor paving farmyards; stones for soughs land drainage; large stone for locks bridges and weirs; barge  available”. In 1819 he extended the tramway into the quarry and in 1819 advertised for two boats and 9/10 quarrymen. It was clearly a major operation but Welch also had a Derby brick business and he may have given up the quarry. Swinnerton continued to work part of it. By 1880, the quarry was still active but the rail sidings to the gangway had been removed and by 1901 the site was overgrown and disused.

The quarry and surrounding area became a popular picnic site. The Co-op calendar for 1907 has a painting of some picnickers above the quarry and there are reports in the newspapers of meetings of young people there – and complaints from the farmer, Mr Johnston, about litter.

In 1971 George Millington bought the site and relocated his business from Derby. He and his son produced interlocking concrete blocks for house building, trading as GEM Concrete. They later turned to casting concrete sculptured goods. The yard is now occupied by Camps building merchants. There are three residential houses in the grounds of the lower part of the quarry.

5.       Windy Lane 

There was a small quarry on Windy Lane, opposite these main sites. This quarry, owned by the Church of England Ecclesiastical Commission, was leased to Thomas Tatham in 1849, John Tomlinson in 1861 and Charles Slack in 1919. In 1924 Slack was advertising for “tough stone – kerbs a specialty”. It seems to have fallen into disuse shortly afterwards.

Quarry families

The Barton family

Thomas Barton (1771-1837) lived in Duffield and leased the Outwoods and Rigga lane quarries with his brother- in- law William Smith. He and his wife, Elizabeth had two sons, Thomas (1800-1867) and John (1802-1861),who were both stone masons. Thomas junior and his wife, Ellen, had seven children. Their three sons, Thomas, William and Owen were stone cutters. Meanwhile, John (who seemed to manage the quarries) and his wife, Hannah had 12 children. One of these, Henry (1829-1883),  took over the business.

By the middle of the century the Bartons had several quarries in the area. Henry and his two wives, Mary and Elizabeth, had nine children. The eldest boy, Thomas Henry (1866-1946), ran the business but buildings were being made of brick and concrete and stone quarrying began to decline. The Outwoods quarry closed in 1897 and the Rigga lane quarry closed in 1905. By then Thomas Henry had become much more interested in motorized transport and had converted a lorry to carry passengers. He and his son, Thomas Andrew (1888-1968) established a bus company which became very successful.

The Gregory and Moore Families

The life of the Gregory and Moore families is set out in the book “Caroline: Her Life in Little Eaton”. Samuel Gregory was a “stone getter”, as was his brother Thomas. Samuel died in 1849 “attempting to lift a large block of rock causing an iron bar to strike him in the bowels”. His daughter Caroline married James Moore, a stone mason and their son, James, was also a stone mason. 

The Grace Family

Many of the extended Grace family of Little Eaton , Coxbench, Morley etc worked in the quarries.  Several workers called Grace worked in Cotterwood Quarry, a small quarry not listed here. Their speciality was the production of stones for sharpening scythes. They also worked on the Eaton Bank quarries The Grace family lived  near the Delver’s Inn (later Queen’s Head). The best- known member of the family was  Alice Grace (1853-1927). After many personal tragedies, Alice lost her home and camped over her grandfather’s former scythe stone warehouse behind the Delvers’ Inn.  She later lived in a bacon box for many years before being removed to a workhouse.

The Seal family

The Seal family was another extended family in the area who worked in the quarries and mills. The 1841 census records five Seals living in Poole’s Row (next to the blacksmith’s shop). All the men worked as stone masons or quarrymen. Later, branches of the family were recorded as living in Whittaker Lane, Mount Pleasant (off Windy Lane) and the Blue Mountains cottages.