Meeting details

Meet at 09.00 in the large lay-by at SK00756982 (SK17 0TG). We’re meeting this early as the days are drawing in and we need to be back at the cars by 4pm.

Leaders: Tom Blockeel, Mags Crittenden

Reeve Edge quarries were developed for the production of stone roofing flags which can be seen on many buildings around the area. An enormous amount of waste was produced during manufacture as can be seen on the surrounding tips. Access to the quarry is through Dane Bower Quarry across the River Dane although there is no bridge. It is a long excavation, 150m, driven easterly in rising (south-west to north-east) ground. The faces are up to 18m tall with large slabs – up to 1m across – suitable for roofing. However, bedding becomes more uneven within a few meters. Main period of operation appears to have been 1850 to 1900. There are remains of shelters and the quarry may have been served by a narrow-gauge railway. The quarry is in the middle of the Rough Rock (sandstone). Over burden is thin but there is a cap of thickly bedded rock (suitable for flags and walling) immediately below this and above the slate beds. There is a chimney which served the Dane Bower Colliery which has a shaft on the hillside below and an adit entrance at river level.

After parking we will walk back along the A54 (there is a path by the road) and take the track down into the quarry. We hope to find species associated with acidic rock, acid grassland, dwarf shrub heath and blanket mire. These are interesting quarries in that they actually cross 3 Vice-County boundaries. Danebower Quarries are in Cheshire, Reeve Edge Quarries are in Derbyshire and a little further south is the Staffordshire border with interesting outcrops at the base of Orchard Farm. There is also interest around Panniers Pool and Three Shires Head.