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Dr. J. R. Hollick
A paper read to the Cheadle Historical Society on March 24th, 1954
The limestone quarry at Caldon Low, Staffordshire was worked by the LMS until the end of 1934, and in the early LMS period a tonnage of limestone around 200,000 tons was quarried annually. This dropped until in 1929 just in excess of 165,000 tons was worked and, by 1953, this had dropped dramatically to 27,000 tons per annum. The accompanying notes have been compiled by well known railway historian, Dr Jack Hollick and we consider that as this very extraneous feature of a railway operating company was nevertheless an important one and accordingly we would like to extend our thanks to Dr Hollick for this contribution.
I do not feel that my investigations represent the last word on the subject, and I am sure that others may be able to correct or add to what I have to say. One must always have an open mind on possible inaccuracies in one's reconstructions of the past, so I will gladly welcome corrections and additions with a view to presenting a complete and accurate picture of these fascinating lines which are so little known and which comprise the oldest part of the railway system of the late North Staffordshire Railway.
Sincere thanks to the following who have helped to make this paper possible:-
From these kind friends I have had every help and encouragement, and all information and access to old documents possible; and I would particularly like to express my indebtedness to Mr Joseph Walker for his enthusiasm and for the way in which he has tirelessly ferreted out all the old photographs of the Caldon Tramways existing in the district, and made them available to me for copying and placing on record.
The Act for the building of the Trent & Mersey Canal, 92 miles long, was obtained on May 14th, 1766, and it was opened throughout in 1777, the Harecastle tunnel being the last portion to be completed. By this and other canals the Rivers Trent, Mersey, Thames and Severn were all connected for the transport of goods.
In 1769 the proprietors of the Trent & Mersey Canal obtained a lease for 999 years of the solid limestone hill of Caldon Low, between Ashbourne & Leek, from which limestone had been quarried by various small concerns for many years previously. On May 13th 1776, they obtained an Act for a branch canal 20~ miles long from the main canal at Etruria to Froghall with a railway (or plateway) thence to Caldon Low. I understand that it was originally intended to serve the Quarries by canal, but that a rise of 700 feet in four miles proved utterly impracticable to overcome by locks, so a railway was chosen as far simpler. The first railway was opened in 1777, so I conclude that the Froghall (or Caldon) canal was opened in the same year.
The Engineer of the Trent & Mersey & Caldon Canals & Railway was JAMES BRINDLEY, one of England's greatest engineers, whose memory has been forgotten and his achievements taken for granted by later generations. We forget how his pioneer canals, still great waterways today, contributed to the Industrial Revolution, and his neglected grave in Newchapel Churchyard is a poor tribute to one of England's men. Brindley was born at Tunstead, near Buxton, and in 1742 was in business at Leek as a millwright. He was a mechanical genius, with a phenomenal memory, but was almost completely illiterate. He became famous by engineering the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal, the great pioneer canal of England; Gilbert, agent to the Duke of Bridgewater, married Lydia Bill of Farley Hall, Oakamoor, so that Gilbert's local knowledge of Brindley's genius obtained for him the post of Engineer to this canal, by which he became famous, and was called on to engineer the Trent & Mersey and other canals.
Brindley married Anne Henshall of Newcastle in 1755; he bought Turnhurst Hall, Chell, where he died in 1772 of nephritis contracted at Ipstones whilst surveying the Caldon Canal, and diabetes. He owned coalmines at Goldenhill which had tunnels opening into the Harecastle canal tunnel whereby the coal was loaded direct into barges; a practice he had successfully instituted in the Bridgewater canal. Turnhurst Hall was pulled down in 1929; in the garden were Brindley's model experimental locks, the gates of which are now in the British Museum.
The Caldon Canal - which incidentally ingeniously uses part of the River Churnet at Consall for its bed, thereby ensuring a water supply was subsequently extended to Uttoxeter from a junction of locks and basins at Froghall. The terminus was at The Wharf, still known as such but now covered by council houses. The old buildings were pulled down in 1937. The Canal was converted to the Churnet Valley Railway from Froghall to Uttoxeter in 1849; the fact that the line was laid for the most part in its bed accounts for the many sharp curves on this section, but there are still traces of the canal to be seen at Oakamoor, Denstone and Rocester, The pond at Woodseat, Rocester, by the side of the railway, is the old canal.
In 1796 it was proposed to build "a canal off the proposed Uttoxeter canal to Hanging Bridge" (close to Ashbourne-presumably to be fed by the River Dove): and in 1797 a canal and railway was proposed from Lane End (Longton) (from the Stoke-Lane End plateway) to Froghall "via Dellhorn (Dilhorne) Colliery". The building of Rudyard Lake was also proposed at this time.
Besides the Caldon Low plateway, other lines were authorised to connect with the Trent & Mersey Canal:
As the Caldon Railway was the second line in the country to be authorised by Purllamentary powers (the first being the Middleton Colliery plateway at Leeds), and as the Trent and Mersey Canal was later acquired by the North Staffordshire Railway, we may look upon the primitive truck to Caldon Low as the logical beginning of the railway system of that name.
There were five different railways serving Caldon Low at various times, three built by the Trent & Mersey Canal, and the last two by the North Staffordshire Railway. We must first consider the Trent and Mersey Canal lines, which all employed wagons with ordinary flat treaded, as opposed to flanged, wheels; the North Stafford lines were railways in the accepted present-day sense, and their wagons had flanged wheels.
This was in use for only three years. I think that it was a very temporary line, built to start the carriage of limestone to the Canal as soon as possible, until the more substantial 1780 line was opened. I have been unable to trace it throughout all its course, but it is largely on ground level with a few earthworks. It takes the easiest course commensurate with the lack of such earthworks, but was nevertheless steeply graded for the return empty wagons. It started from Froghall Basin by the original kilns (which may still be traced) on the North side and ran up Shirley Hollow along the Shirley Brook (which is crossed by a little bridge) to Shirley Common. There is some cutting as it leaves the hollow. It then crosses obliquely the Garston-Foxt lane, and may then be traced by gate openings across fields in a straight line towards Shirley House Farm. I cannot definitely trace it beyond. Nor can I state the gauge, and can only say that the track probably had a stone foundation with timber baulks on which were laid flat strips of iron to facilitate the progress of the wagons. In view of the description of the similar track for the 1780 line, described later I think this must be the case, as the inner flange to the cast iron strip to guide the wagons was a subsequent stage in the evaluation of the track and did not appear at Froghall till 1802, although in use previously on other plateways. Presumably, ordinary fourwheel wagons were used opposite.
This line was in use until 1802, and aimed at a fairly gradual rise from Froghall to Caldon Low on a better engineered track. It ran up Harston Wood close to the valley bottom, and then turned right beyond the Harston Rock to climb a neck of the wood to emerge in open fields above Whiston. For some reason the later line of 1849 was carried across this track by a bridge.
The track through the Wood was quite well marked in its upper stages in 1935, but very overgrown at the valley bottom. Harston Wood was cut down in the 1939- 1945 War, and the resultant wetness and undergrowth has made the track impossible; although it is possible, from the Froghall-Foxt Road, to see the courses of the 1780 and 1849 lines (the latter at a higher level) clearly climbing the Wood, as they never could be seen when the trees were there.
The track leaves the Wood through a gate with stone posts, and runs across fields, on a clearly raised low formation with evidence of a passing place, to cross the Ashbourne-Hanley Road (A52) diagonally at a row of cottages known as Roggin Row. The Row at right angles to the road, have their gardens in a tri.angular plot bounded by cottages, road and railway. The track proceeds to cross Blakely Lane (between stone gate posts now filled up) and then runs straight across fields to become lost in the neighbourhood of Garston. It may next be traced on Cotton Common, being crossed by the 1849 and 1802 lines, with little track formation on a fairly easy gradient. The 1802 Cotton Plane bridged this track, and the bridge may still be seen today, filled in on the north side to make a cattle shelter. The track wound up the Common to cross the Leek-RamsorEllastone road on the level, and be joined here by the later 1802 line: it ran across fields to pass through the Hamlet of Hoften's Cross by the side of and over the road to enter the Caldon Quarries by crossing the Ashbourne-Hanley Road (A52) on the level.
Presumably the same type of wagons were used, horse drawn. We have a record of the track used on this line, in "The Coal Viewer and Engine Builder's Practical Companion", by John Curr of Sheffield (1797).
He states on pages 13 and 14:-
" ... At Froghall (sic), in Staffordshire, they had a land conveyance for their limestone, which is three or four miles in length, one half of which is flat ground, and the other half, about two and a half, or three inches decent in the yard; these roads, which are on the plan of what is called Newcastle waggon roads, are laid in a firm manner upon wood, (after having been at a great expence of stoneing about ten or twelve inches thick for a foundation); upon this wood is paid cast iron an inch and a half thick, a part of which weighs in every single yard forward 141 pounds, and other models weigh only 81 pounds; . when the waggons come upon these roads, which together with the limestone weighs in the sundry kinds of these carriages, they do, and have made use of, not less than four, five and six tons, and I believe as much as seven tons even, which burden being laid all upon four feet in length; the·above roads, although enormous in their first expence, are nothing too strong. Were my roads ana. carriages introduced in situations similar to this, where' there is nothing wanted in the road but cast iron plates half an inch thick, (one yard forward of which road weigh about 48 pounds), and a sleeper wood, four inches by two and a half, at every two yards asunder, and a small carriage upon the construction of our curves, by which means the draught of the horses would be dispersed upon 20 yards instead of 4 feet, the savings would be considerable indeed; not to mention, that instead of applying a friction upon the waggon wheel to hold them down hill, take back the empty one, upon the same principle as we convey our coals down the gates or ways underground at Sheffield and Attercliffe collieries."
So it is clear that the 1783 Caldon Line did not use the flanged plateway.
The course of the Caldon Line was altered by Act of. Parliament of April 15th, 1802; John Rennie was the engineer. and the line is well described in Farey's "Agriculture of Derbyshire" (1817), a mine of information on the subject of railways and canals in proposal and in fact, and fortunately not confined to Derbyshire, as the title would indicate. I quote freely from Farey's original description. The railway was a double line of flanged plateway, spiked to stone blocks, comprising fairly level stretches Worked by horses, and inclines worked' by balancing the loads. At Froghall Wharf there were "Four Lime Kilns and Ten Tippling Machines to fill the barges", and "railways were laid from the Tipples to the bottom of the Froghall Plane". This was the First Froghall Plane, 65 feet long, worked by balancing the loads "with a chain round a Drum at the top wlth a Regulating Brake". At the top was It level stretch of railway, 50 yards long, "from which Branch railways were laid to Tipples on either side of the Plane" (presumably to the Kilns). Then came the Great Froghall Plane, 303 yards long, worked by balancing the loads on an endless chain. This is very steeply graded and may be clearly seen, very overgrown; there is a footpath down it, and here to the top it crossed, by a bridge now removed, a lane given off from the Ashbourne-Hanley Road (A52) at the hairpin bend; the abutments of the bridge are by the side of the main road. At the foot of the Plane is a stone barn. I cannot say if this was originally a covered shed at the foot, later made into a barn, or whether it was built at a later date after the Plane was disused. At the top of the Plane, on the very edge of the slope, is a farmhouse; this may have originally been two separate cottages for banksmen, one on each side of the railway, but today it is one house, joined by an arch with rooms over the railway. The working of this Plane, with the very steep gradient and 'short clearance at the bottom for the reception of wagons, must have been a very risky procedure, but I have no records of accidents.
The line then ran on the level for threequarters of a mile to the foot of the Whiston Plane, crossing the Ashbourne-Hanley Road twice on the level. Between the level crossings, at the Whiston Lees, was an outcrop canal seam known as Lees Colliery.
After the second level crossing it runs along the hillside to the north of Whiston; the formation may be clearly traced throughout. It then turns round to cross the Ashbourne-Hanley Road again on the level, and instantly ascends the short Whiston Plane, 150 yards long, worked by balancing the loads on an endless chain.
This plane is crossed about half way up by a lane, the arch of the bridge being blocked up'; for most of its length it is cutting, but at the top it is an embankment. At the top are two banksmen's cottages. There is then a level stretch of one mile to the foot of the Cotton Plane. This level section starts on embankment which is pierced by an arch still visible, for. cattle access, and then runs in cutting to cross Blakeley Lane on the level only about 100 yards from the 1780 Line; it then curves in cutting through Garston, passing under a lane by a bridge (the arch of which is blocked up) to run through what is now the, garden of Garston Villa, the home of Mr Joseph Walker. This was the house of the Quarry Manager of Caldon Low in later years, and was built in the middle of the nineteenth century by the NSR to replace the original manager's house, Garston House, which is a short distance away and is now a farm. The change took place at the request of the Quarry Manager of the period, who wished to be able to watch and check the flow of wagons on the 1849 cable line at all times from his house. Certainly there is an excellent view of this line from practically every window of Garston Villa, of which part of the garden is in the cutting of the 1802 line in which Mr Walker found a section of cast-iron haulage chain, which he has preserved. The lane serving Garston Villa, from Garston House to Blakeley Lane, was owned by the NSR.
After leaving the cutting, the plateway ran over the fields, giving off a branch to Garston House, where there were wagon repair shops; these were presumably the very old outbuildings visible here. It crossed Cotton Lane on the level, and then reached the cutting at the foot of the Cotton Plane, 294 yards long, starting in cutting but for the most part· on embankment. This Plane is very 'conspicuous for miles around; it may be seen from up by Werrington; it also was worked by balancing the loads on an endless chain.
The stone blocks to which the flanged plates were spiked may still be seen, and' near to the top is the bridge by which it crosses the 1780 Line, blocked in on the north side to-form a cattle shelter. At the top is a banksman's cottage and old stables, known as "Cotton Plane". The line bends right, by a wall in which stone sleepers may be found, and runs on the level along the hillside to join the 1780 line. There is then a cutting, and a bridge (filled in) under the Leek-Ramsor-Ellastone road. As stated, it is probable that the 1780 line crossed this road on the level. The combined lines run first in cutting and later on low embankment to "Haughton's (Hofton's) Cross, where there is a coal yard. with Four Turning Plates and Tipples". There is a small stone walled enclosure, full of weeds, behind the houses, which I like to look upon as the site of the Coal Yard. The lines run. on a gentle curve, followed by the fronts of houses so that their course is clear between the houses and the. road, to cross the road and enter the Quarries as described for the 1780 line; the short course between the road at Hoften's Cross and -the Ashbourne-Hanley Road is still railway property, designated as such by an illegible board which used to. be a warning to trespassers. I do not. know the gauge of the 1802 line, but Farey states that the wagons used were 4-wheeleds of wood, "with stout projections of'- wood at each end, hooped , with iron", i.e, buffers. As far as is known, this line had no relation to the very similar plateway, built about the same time, from Consall to Weston Coyney, which has been very well described by Mr J. D. Johnstone.
The wagons clattered merrily up and down the inclines until the replacement of this line in 1849. On January 15th, 1847, the North Stafford Railway acquired the Trent & Mersey Canal by the terms of the agreement whereby the NSR leased the Canal from the 15th day of January after the passing of the Bill for the construction of the NSR. The Canal from Froghall Basin to Uttoxeter was converted into the Churnet Valley Railway (the Froghall Basin-Froghall Junction branch and the main line from Froghall Junction-Uttoxeter), and a 3 foot 6 inch gauge railway, worked on the self-acting principle by cables in four sections, was built from Froghall Basin to Caldon Low.
This line is heavily engineered but simple to operate, running practically dead straight across country on steadily rising gradients. All four inclines were worked by balancing the loads, the cable being wound round a drum at the site of the First Froghall Plane of 1802; there were marshalling roads and sidings to the Kilns on one flank of the Basin and a crushing plant on the other flank. The weighbridge house still stands, bearing the notice "NSR. This incline will be closed for traffic from the 25th of March 1920"; the second incline was about 70 chains long, with the drum at Oldridge, above Whiston and due north of Roggin Row. It ran straight on the side of Harston Wood, with a slight curve at the top, crossing the site of the 1780 Line by a bridge to be then crossed itself by a right of pathway on a bridge. It emerged from the Wood in cutting to reach the Oldridge Cottages and Drum at ground level. As stated, this incline was worked on the self-acting principle, with a passing place for the wagons in the middle; above the passing place was a single track, i.e. two rails, but below the passing place there were three rails - the ascending .>and descending trains using a common middle rail for the inner wheels of the wagons. Photographs of the trains and track in Harston Wood are in strong contrast to the almost impassable overgrowth of this section today.
The gradient is from 1 in 20 to 1 in 30.
The supports for the Oldridge Drum were standing in 1935 but had been removed by 1939.
The next section is on a gradient of about 1 in 30, one mile 30 chain's long, dead straight from Oldridge to the Tunnel End Drum opposite Upper Cotton. Apart from a short embankment approach to the Tunnel End Drum it is in cutting all the way, with stone retaining walls and crossed by five bridges. It was worked in the same way as the previous incline. Today, part is in use as a hen-run, and a stream runs down it. By the second bridge, carrying the Ashbourne-Hanley Road near Garston, is a very rusty water tank, which was used as a water supply for the quarry engines till satisfactory supplies were installed at Caldon Low; the water was taken up to the quarries in special tank wagons. This tank is a very old NSR engine tender; through the rust it was possible till recently to find the Victoria brown paint in use till 1903, and under this the bright green paint with a black and white lining used till 1882. This tender is easy to examine as it is close by the wall of the road, and you will be able to see the exploratory scratchings made by "Manifold" at different times. By it is a LMSR Trespassers notice. On the other side of the road, near to Mrs Billing's house, is a small knoll known as "Snowdon", on which the NSR Directors used to hold ail annual picnic. The Tunnel End Drum is above the pumping station for the Caldon Low waterworks, at the site of crossing the 1780 line. No trace exists of the drum today.
The final section from Tunnel End to Caldon Quarries is about 60 chains long, on a gradient of about 1 in 40 to 1 in 50. The tunnel is about 20 chains long, and is very waterlogged, though as far as I know the bore is still complete. There is next a cutting crossed by a bridge, and then embankment to cross the road at Hofton's Cross by a bridge, (removed in 1939) to join the older plateways to cross the Ashbourne-Hanley Road on the level into the Quarries.
Between the bridge and the road crossings is the Caldon Low shop and store of Mr Wain of Waterhouses, into which ran a siding for loads of corn and goods brought up from Froghall; the rails are still laid in the shop. At the Quarry entrance were sidings and engine sheds, to be described later.
It can truthfully be said that the heyday of Caldon Low was during the life of this line. The trains were made up to a maximum of 9 wagons, each carrying 6 tons of hand-loaded limestone, up to 1,000 tons being carried daily to Froghall Basin to be crushed, burnt or loaded into barges and trains. Much limestone went by canal to Brunner Mond's of Northwich (later Imperial Chemical Industries). Each train was controlled by several brakemen, who also changed the cables at the various stages. Quarrymen came to Cal don Low from North Wales; there was a big Welsh colony still reflected in the Welsh names of some of the rows of houses, and workmen from the Churnet Valley were taken up and down in at least two passenger vehicles, as shown by old photographs; one covered, the other open. The railway brought up goods and coal to Caldon Low and Mr Wain's shop, and also carried unofficial passengers, one of whom received serious head injuries at one of the low overbridges.
In 1902 a party of NSR officials travelled up the line for the Coronation Blast at Caldon Low, as described in the October 1902 issues of· "The Railway Magazine" . Special tank wagons ran down empty in the trains to Oldridge to be halted on the return trip to load water for the quarry engines at the water tank. Caldon limestone is very hard, with a crushing strain of 31000 pounds per square inch, and was in great demand by Brunner Mond's, and this the NSR itself used a certain amount for ballast.
But by the early 1900's the Cal don Hill had been so extensively quarried that the workings were moving further away from the original western workings towards Waterhouses. On July 1st, 1905, a standard gauge branch, 61 chains long, was opened from the new Leek BrookWaterhouses Line at Cal don Junction to serve more directly the new workings. It was proposed to extend this branch down the course of the cable line to join the Churnet Valley Line at Froghall, but the cost of the .conversion and working would have been too great. More and more stone passed by the new railway, directly without transhipment, to all parts of the country via Leek, and less and less via Froghall and the canal.
There was a great demand for limestone in the 1914-1918 War; in 1917 new crushers were installed at the Quarries, und a new mechanical stone chute and hopper at Endon Canal Basin, but then the policy of Imperial Chemical Industries was changed - it is said owing to the death of a director who had always Insisted on the use of Cal don limestone; the Brunner Mond Works at Sandbach were closed in 1920., and ICI started to quarry stone from their own quarries at Tunstead by Buxton; how curious that they should have chosen Brindley's birthplace! There was a serious slip in . the canal at Froghall Basin, and the Cable Incline was closed on March 25th, 1920; the steadily diminishing traffic und increased cost of maintenance did not warrant its use. The notice of closure is still affixed to the weighbridge house ut the top of Froghall Basin. The track was lifted on the cable incline in 1921, and many of the wagons, not required in the quarries, were broken up for their timber in the General Strike of 1926. The Billings family of Whiston, who had been employed for many years on the railway and at - Caldon Low, had the breaking up of the wagons and there are several fine substantial wagon planks to be seen in the shed at their house at Whiston.
In 1923 the Quarries became the property of the LMSR, who leased them In. 1934 to Messrs Hadfield of Sheffield, so that they became part of the "Derbyshire Stone" group of quarries. The engines ceased to be used and were kept idle in their shed till they were scrapped in May, 1936 by Messrs T: W. Ward of Sheffield.
It is amazing to see the Basin today, desolate as it is, and compare it with photographs taken at the height of its activity, when so much was done in so small a space. Roughly it is a triangle of land bounded on the north by the original kilns and the end of the Canal, on the south-east by later kilns (used till recently), and on the west by the Froghall-Foxt Road, which crossed all the railway lines, and still crosses the canal by a bridge. There are offices on this road, facing the Basin, used. as the Froghall station goods offices. In the Basin itself were a Crushing Plant - with another on top· of the original kilns - a warehouse with crane, which is still standing by the Canal; and two sunken standard gauge sidings, original barge berths, with narrow gauge lines between and on either side of them for the transhipment of stone. Those sidings ( originally canal) • ran towards the big "Uttoxeter Basin" now full of rushes to the west of the Foxt Road behind the offices; and from here the. original Uttoxeter Canal ran down the Churnet Valley. As stated, this was later a railway running for about half a mile to Froghall Junction, under the AshbourneHanley Road. Until the 1939-45 War, this section was clearly a converted canal; but an extension of Bolton's Works was built on it and the road widened, abolishing the bridge, and only the goods sidings from Froghall Junction to the south of the bridge remain, by the gasworks. The track from the Basin to these sidings was lifted in the late 1920's, but the marks of the sleepers were still visible in 1935. The "Uttoxeter Basin" still connects with the Caldon Canal by a deep lock, unfenced off the gates are bricked up. The Canal itself has much subsidence of the banks; it is dirty and steaming from effluent of Bolton'sWorks, and contains the rotting hulks of sunken barges. There was a brickworks in the early years of this century on the north bank opposite the lock, served by a contractors narrow gauge tramway across the Canal, the rails being lifted out to let barges pass; no trace remains today. At the neck of the Basin is a narrow gulley which was the First Froghall Plane of all the railways; at the top are still the stone supports of the winding drum, and the small weighbridge house with the 1920 Notice of Closure.
Since this was written the Basin has been opened up as a picnic area (1976/ 7) with the reconditioning of the Canal as a tourist water.way. It has been done very well and is not quite complete (1978). The Lime Kilns have been refaced. What is important is that a section of the 3'6" gauge quarry line has been exposed and left in situ.
Nature Trails have been made and one walk is up the long line from the Basin to Oldridge. From this the older 1783 line may be easily viewed.
The Caldon Low Quarries of today are to be seen as a huge raw scar facing north, visible as far as Leek on the LeekAshbourne Road (A523). The modern crushing plant is here, and the mineral line from Leek Brook through Caldon Junction. (The section from Caldon Junction to Waterhouses was closed in 1941). But we are more concerned with the older quarries on the top of the hill to the west. The old workings start on the right of the Ashbourne-Hanley Road at the Wardlow turn and continue, grass grown, for half a mile to just beyond the summit of the road, where there is a fine view to the' north. Here is the former entrance of all the plateways and the cable line into the quarries, crossing the road on the level. On the right of the road are cottages, the remains of stables and wagon repairing shops, and till 1936, the two sheds housing the three engines. On my first visit, in September, 1935, the quarry lines were still laid and overgrown, with the remains of the cable drum by the road; there were open, tipping and tank wagons by the engine sheds, in which were the three engines, "Bobs", "Frog" and "Toad", still in their NSR livery. As stated they were scrapped on the spot in May 1936 and the shed later pulled down. There was a main line running into the heart of the quarries, with a branch to an inner quarry through a tunnel 150 yards long, part bricked, part natural stone; one can still walk through the tunnel. Sidings and spurs lead off to various old grass grown workings. There is a small explosives shed still approached by a length of steel track changing to wooden rail in the vicinity of the shed, and there is the skeleton of a wagon ·here. It is easy to miss one's way' among the widespread grass grown spoil heaps. At the far end is the remains of a steep cable incline to the present day workings and crusher.
Horses were used in the Quarries until 1877, when two 0-4-0 saddle tank engines with outside cylinders. and without cabs were bought from Henry Hughes & Co., of Loughborough; these were "Frog" and "Toad". In 1901 another engine, called "Bobs" (probably after Lord Roberts), of the same wheel arrangement came from W. J. Bagnall Ltd. of the Castle Engineering Works, Stafford. These engines did the general quarry shunting and marshalling of the trains for the cable line to Froghall; I cannot say when they were last used.
In 1906 a cave was opened up in the quarry, full of stalactites, stalagmites and fossils, the North Stafford fitted this up with stairways and electric light, and it was a great tourist attraction. The NSR ulso produced some fine coloured postcurds of this cave, and to the Waterhouses Station nameboard they added "Alight for Froghall Quarries" - a command which always puzzled me, and probably many passengers in latter days, until I. realised that "Froghall Quarries" was the official name for Caldon Quarries. But the attractions of the caves were not allowed to stand in the way of the demand for limestone, and it has long since been destroyed.
Across the Hanley Road to the west was the shaft of the Ribden Copper Mine, which was a prominent landmark till just before the 1939 War. Clay was also dug here and taken down the railway to the brickworks at Froghall Basin.
There was a big blast at Caldon Low on July 12th, 1938, detonated by electricity from Euston Station, London, It was intended that the foundation stone from this blast be used for the proposed new Euston Station; but the new rebuilt Euston still exists only in the form of plans.
Mr Billings of Whiston has some interesting old quarry books. One is the shot-firing book for 1869-72, with plans of the galleries mined, and the amounts of powder used and stone quarried - all in beautiful manuscript. The wages book of 1869-74 shows that wages were paid every fortnight; the miners and wagon loaders were paid as gangs under the name of the gang foreman, and the miners had deductions made for powder candles and fuses. In 1870 there was a fatal ucoldent for which inquest fees and a coffin had to be paid.
Whenever I pass along the Hanley Road, by the old quarries, I cannot help but feel a sense of "atmosphere"; the grass grown mounds, culminating in the little silent plain by the engine sheds dominated by a prominence of hill, carved and quarried like an old Egyptian step pyramid, still seem to be alive in their own peculiar way. Mary Howitt, the Staffordshire poet, wrote her ballad "The Fairies of Caldon Low" - so presumably she felt the same even when the old quarries were still active. The ancient Greeks also felt such impressions in their time; they called such places with atmosphere and personality. a "Ternenos" or "Sacred Place", and attributed a resident spirit to such a place. It may seem silly, but to me Caldon Low is such another "Ternenos". I first explored the quarries and old railways on September 14th, 1935, leaving Ashbourne by bus in a deluge of rain, obstinately determined or pushed on to carry out my prearranged plan of exploration. As I alighted at Caldon Low the rain stopped; as I walked over to Cotton Edge I could only see heavy grey skies with the clouds swirling below me in the Churnet Valley. And then the miracle happened - a thin blue line appeared in the far west, the grey sky lifted like a curtain and the sun came out. The rain had washed down the smoke of the potteries, and I could see for miles and miles - from Charnwood to The Wrekin, the Cleo Hills, the Montgomeryshire Hills and the Welsh Mountains over for Snowdon, round to Mow Cop with the Potteries spread out like a map. For a few minutes I enjoyed the most magnificent view I have ever seen, and which I have never seen again in all my Caldon trips.
It seemed as if the old gods of Caldon Low were looking kindly on me and had decided to give me a sign that they would reveal their secrets; and certainly I have been most fortunate to have so much willing help in my research.
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June 4th, 2026
Site contents Copyright © LMS Society, 2026