PMP2000 > Places > Charnwood History

INDUSTRIES

GRANITE:
The two CHARNWOOD locations most associated with Granite are SHEPSHED and MOUNTSORREL - the first for diorite and the second for grandiorite. These are the two most significant varieties which have been quarried in the Borough and are both of exceptional hardness and durability.

MOUNTSORREL GRANITE:
Granite mining in MOUNTSORREL dates back to Roman times, when it was used for local buildings. However, much of this was taken from hills and the open countryside rather than being deliberately quarried. Granite use was extensive in local buildings, which were at one time almost exclusively of stone. So much so, that the building of the red brick ST PETER'S VICARAGE in 1783 was the cause of much comment!

Systematic quarrying began in the second half of the 18th century and evidence of this can be seen in buildings all over CHARNWOOD. But the industry's greatest market was in road building and surfacing with the rise of the turnpike system. Squared stones known as "setts" were laid in even rows and there was great demand for road granite from rapidly expanding towns such as LEICESTER. MOUNTSORREL QUARRIES, under the ownership of SIR JOHN DANVERS quickly established themselves as the best and most convenient source of this new road surfacing material.

The production of these setts led also to the production of large quantities of granite chippings. These were also used for road surfacing and in 1758, DANVERS won contracts from, among others, the HARBOROUGH TO LOUGHBOROUGH TURNPIKE to surface roads throughout the area.

The irony of this success was that the weight of transporting the quarried granite badly damaged the roads around MOUNTSORREL itself. This problem was only solved when granite transport moved from roads to the newly constructed canal in 1794.

The industry continued to flourish well into the nineteenth century. In 1812 the quarrying rights had been bought by a man named Jackson who, at that time, employed between 50 and 100 people. By 1870, this number had swelled to almost 600, by which time ownership had passed to Mr John Martin. On his death, the rights and workings of CASTLE HILL QUARRY were sold to the MOUNTSORREL GRANITE COMPANY. CASTLE HILL was also sometimes known as BROAD HILL and there were other, smaller quarries in the area, including HAWCLIFFE and COCKLOW WOOD.

In 1860, a branch railway line was constructed to take rock from the quarries around the village of MOUNTSORREL itself. This was a condition of allowing the GREAT CENTRAL LINE to be built on land belonging to local landowners and by 1863, the line was carrying 200 tons of granite per day.

By the early 1900s, MOUNTSORREL was producing 200,000 tons of granite: 22,000 tons as setts, 10,000 as smaller blocks and the rest as chippings. With the phasing out of setts in the 1930s, all granite produced was crushed stone for the construction industries.

The whole operation was modernised after the Second World War but by 1966 the granite resources of CASTLE HILL QUARRY were exhausted. REDLAND STONE took over the firm at this time but closed the quarry and shifted their attention to the BUDDON WOOD area. The MOUNTSORREL GRANITE industry had reached the end of the road.

FROM "A COMPANION TO CHARNWOOD" (1858):
"MOUNTSORREL HILL is about 120 feet above the town and 1,400 yards long and is estimated to contain, above the surrounding level, about 200 millions of cubic feet of granite. The granite has a larger admixture of felspar than that of Aberdeen. Here and there, masses are found disintegrated..."

SHEPSHED GRANITE:
Although never as large an operation as in MOUNTSORREL, there were several granite quarries around SHEPSHED. The most important of these were to the south of the village at NEWHURST and LONGCLIFFE, where quarrying was begun in the late 1860s by the GARENDON CHARNWOOD GRANITE COMPANY. By 1878 there were two quarries in the NEWHURST area and a third in LONGCLIFFE, called the GARENDON QUARRY. I 1891, ELLIS AND EVERARD took over the quarrying and also built a branch rail link at SHEPSHED STATION with the LNWR. Aggregate stone production is still one of SHEPSHED's most important industries.