Markfield Knoll Hill (now Hill Hole) was actively quarried on a large scale from at least the 1830s, before being abandoned ahead of the First World War (1914). It was one of four local granite hills, the other three being Billa Barra, Cliffe Hill and Bardon Hill. Each had been quarried on a smaller scale for local needs over hundreds of years.
Markfield Quarry achieved brief national and international fame in 1869, with the opening of an innovative wire-rope railway to transport the stone to Bardon railway station.
This page covers these topics:
The stone and geology
The windmill
The quarry and the quarrymen
Closure and subsequent uses
The quarry becomes a nature reserve
The layout and workings of the quarry in more detail
The wire-rope railway or tramway
The stone and geology
The stone within the Charnwood Forest was formed by violent marine volcanic activity 600 million years ago. The Markfield stone is South Charnwood Diorite, the youngest Precambrian igneous rock. It was given the name 'Markfieldite' in 1909.
Markfieldite contains a mix of pink, green and black minerals. It is very hard wearing and was quarried to make kerbstones, paving setts and stone for road-making. It was also commonly used in local buildings.
This specimen of Markfieldite is around 560 million years old. It is on display in Luxembourg as part of an exhibit celebrating important rocks from all around the world.
The windmill
Bucks' view of Leicester in 1743 shows a windmill in the distance on Markfield Hill, although one may have been there even earlier. This drawing dates from 1792, with the design suggesting it was very old even then. In 1849, a miller named Morris was struck by lightning in the mill and killed. By the 1870s, the sails had been lost and the quarry eventually destroyed the tree-topped hills.
The quarry and the quarrymen
Joseph Ellis and Breedon Everard opened the 'Markfield Granite Quarry' in 1852 - although the quarry had been active by 1830. This map is from 1883.
They had opened several depots on the developing railway network, to sell coal and farm commodities.
They found a market for selling broken granite to the turnpike trusts responsible for maintaining the major roads. This led them to start the Markfield quarry. They opened the much larger Bardon quarry soon afterwards, in 1857.
Many older houses in Markfield are built with this local stone. However, it was too hard to be sold for building outside of the local area, as builders preferred the softer granite from other parts of the country.
Kelly's Directory noted the Markfield granite was worked into steps, sills and paving setts, as well as broken up for road metalling. There was a good market for these, with the products sent all over the country.
The quarry supplied roadstone to 15 county councils, 10 cities, 22 boroughs and 72 urban & rural district councils.
This invoice to a Surveyor of Highways in Lincolnshire dates from 1863.
Horses provided power for various quarry deliveries and were housed in stables near Hill Lane. Stone was transported via horse-drawn carts along the Leicester - Ashby turnpike (toll) road (which became the A50 - now the A50 and A511) to the new Ashby Road railway station at Bardon (later known as Bardon Station). This was slow and expensive.
The quarry became a major employer. The stone housing terrace on Hill Side known as ‘New Row’ was built for the workers around 1860 (see the page on The Green, Hill Side and Queen St). The quarry was, however, a dangerous place to work. At least 6 employees died there in the latter half of the 19th century.
The men would knock stones up by hand with a hammer and chisel to make setts, 4 by 4 by 6 inch granite bricks, which were used to surface the cobbled streets. Quarry dust was a continual problem and the men grew long moustaches to stop the dust going up their noses. Even for the times, they often died relatively young.
The men were also known for drinking after work (or even before), contributing to the large number of beerhouses and pubs in the village. Plenty of quarrymen are recorded as a group buying a barrel of beer from the Quarryman’s Arms on Queen Street and basking in the sun with it in various places around the village (see the page about the Quarryman's Arms and a write up of the History Group's November 2019 meeting about village pubs).
However, the quarry could not be guaranteed to always provide work. When work was bad, they went elsewhere for another job. Some went to the Welsh quarries for a time, with the 1871 census showing at least 20 Markfield families in just two small Welsh villages; by 1881, they had come home or followed work elsewhere. They could also take new work of which they had little experience. The picture dates from the late 1800s.
Children worked in the quarry over the years. Michael Russell aged nine in 1861 was the youngest recorded on the census.
More details about the layout and workings of the quarry and the wire-rope railway can be found further down the page.
Closure and subsequent uses
In wet weather, the quarry filled with water, so production became sporadic and was abandoned by the First World War (1914). Trees were felled for use as pit props in Desford Colliery in 1916.
Following the closure of the quarry, the site was used by local people. Tales are told of children sliding down the rockfaces into the water, climbing 'Betty Pegg' hill, swimming in the pool (which was not fenced until the early 2000s), the bike circuit and generally having a good time and treating it as a great playground. The rockfaces came to be known for their climbing challenges. In the summer months, the quarry became the local bath for workmen with their towels and bars of soap.
A number of people very sadly lost their lives in the water, which is deep and cold and contains sunken objects (see an interesting report of a dive).
During the Second World War, two 'strategic observation posts', or look-out towers, were sited on the hill for use by the Royal Observer Corps (part of the 'Home Guard'). They would have seen and reported enemy aircraft heading towards Coventry, which was a key target -and which is still visible on a clear day, as is Birmingham.
In the early 1950’s the East Anglian coast was lashed by gales. Quarry waste or spoil from ‘Jimmy Gunn’s Tip’ on the other side of Hill Lane was used to shore up the sea defences. Six drivers with heavy wagons spent many weeks driving to and from Sutton-on-Sea and nearby coastal towns. The size of the tips can be seen in a picture further down.
Hill Hole was called upon to provide water for the new Cliffe Hill Quarry which opened in 1988, probably for dust control. A large pump was in the housing at the foot of the steps. This fed water into a metal pipe which runs under Hill Lane, the M1 and Cliffe Hill Lane to the new quarry.
In 1992, the site was occupied by travellers and their vehicles!
This is before the current fencing was installed around the water.
The quarry becomes a nature reserve
Hill Hole is now owned by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, which purchased it in 2001 as a nature area within the National Forest. It is open to the public and is a valuable local amenity.
There are areas of hay meadow, rock faces and outcrops, heath grassland, hay meadow, woodland and allotments. The water-filled area is home to one of the UK’s rarest and critically endangered creatures - the native North Atlantic (white-clawed) Crayfish.
Download a guide here.
The layout and workings of the quarry in more detail
When the quarry first opened, the stones that were too small for making steps, curb-stones and paving setts were broken by hand into small pieces for road-making. Stones that were cross-grained so would not cleave were also broken up. The Bardon quarry opened in 1857 and a mechanical crushing mill for its stone was installed there in 1858, which was somewhat of a novelty at the time. A second mill was added soon after and used for Markfield stone. A small crusher was installed at Markfield in 1892.
This close-up of the 1883 map shows buildings fronting onto Hill Lane, the crane, buildings within or around the edge of the quarry and the spoil tip across the lane. It also appears to show a chute or similar for moving the waste stone across the lane to the spoil tip.
The crane would have lifted the stone to Hill Lane, where it would have been loaded into horse-drawn carts (before the later days of motor transport) to be taken to customers or to Bardon.
This photo from the late 1800s or very early 1900s shows the crane and the buildings fronting onto Hill Lane - the single-storey row may have been the stables.
Note the horse and carts used for carrying the stone and the workers.
The conveyor to move stone across Hill Lane is seemingly marked on the 1883 map and clearly in existence on the later photos further down, is not visible on this photo.
This photo is a similar view, but from further away, closer to where the M1 passes today. It is from a card posted in 1907.
The immense size of the spoil heaps can be seen (to the right).
A line of carts or vehicles is waiting on Hill Lane, probably ready to transport the products.
This photo is some years later, probably much closer to the start of the First World War in 1914 and the quarry falling out of use. It shows the crane and the buildings from the quarry side, with Hill Lane behind. The overhead conveyor is clearly visible, to move the waste stone to the tip across the lane. The depth of the quarry area now filled with water can also be seen.
This present-day shot shows the remains of the brickwork under the crane, with the holes and the archway just visible to the left. This picture was taken through the security fence just after entering the quarry from Hill Lane.
There are still remnants of a brick wall by Hill Lane, part hanging in the air. This picture was taken through the security fence on Hill Lane.
The water-filled quarry is also visible.
The wire-rope railway or tramway
As noted above, stone was initially transported by horse and cart along the turnpike road to the Midland railway station at Bardon Hill, a distance of around 3 miles. This was slow and expensive. Seeking to improve matters, a new and unusual means of transporting the stone to the station opened in February 1869. This attracted national and international attention.
A wire-rope railway or tramway was built. This was a continuously moving wire-rope cable, upon which the stone was transported in wooden boxes suspended from metal arms. Up to 250 boxes were in use at a time, travelling at 4 to 6 miles per hour. A 16hp steam engine provided power.
Each of the boxes could carry 1cwt (hundred weight) of stone paving sets and road metal (112 lbs or 50 kg). About 200 boxes could be delivered each hour, so about 10 tons of stone.
The wire-rope ran across pulley wheels, which were supported in pairs on about 120 three-legged wooden trestles. These varied in height between 14 and 40 feet (4 and 12 metres) depending on the lie of the ground. They were usually 150 feet apart, but could be as much as 600 feet (45 to 180 metres).
This diagram appeared in 'The Engineer' on 19 February 1869, along with a quite detailed write-up. This leading publication reached many English speaking countries.
For most of the route, the ropeway went alongside the Turnpike (toll) road (later the A50). It probably left the road approaching Bardon, before where St Peter's Church was later built and the Birch Tree Inn, running across land associated with Bardon quarry and then onto Bardon Hill Station where a siding was reserved. Unfortunately, the precise details of the route are lost to history.
Being alongside the road would have given easy access for installation and maintenance and avoided payment to landowners. Although the turnpike trust would have lost the tolls from the horses and carts laden with stone, there would have been much less damage to the road. Also, there was probably a strong relationship between Ellis & Everard and the turnpike trustees.
The inventor of the wire-rope railway was Charles Hodgson, a mining and civil engineer from Ireland. He was living in Richmond, Surrey when he secured the patent rights for his designs in July 1868. He successfully proved his ideas in practical tests at a gravel pit in Richmond.
Then he marketed the invention, setting up the Wire Tramway Company Ltd late in 1868. Markfield quarry was the company's first installation.
The Markfield line was officially tested on 13 February 1869. A party of engineers and press representatives took the train to Leicester from London St Pancras station at 10am, followed by horse and carriage from Leicester to Markfield.
This event was widely reported locally, nationally and then internationally as the news made its way around the world. Much the same report appeared in many different newspapers. Markfield was famous for a time!
Locally, the ropeway became known as the Blondin, after the French high-wire artist Charles Blondin (Jean François Gravelet), famous for his high-wire jaunts across the Niagara Falls.
Despite the apparent early success of the line, it seems it was used for only a short time. The Wire Tramway Company adverts stopped referencing it from as early as August 1869. The autobiograhical notes of the son of Breedon Everard state that opposition was too great for it to continue, without giving any details.
In November 1871, a New Zealand newspaper ran an article that almost certainly referred to the Markfield line. It reported that the turnpike trustees needed an Act of Parliament for it to remain, which would have cost a lot of money. Perhaps this would also have been opposed by various people.
So, the wire-ropeway was dismantled and shipped over to New Zealand, where there had been a mini gold rush. Markfield quarry reverted to transporting the stone by horse and cart.
The Wire Tramway Company went on to supply installations in numerous countries.
Principal sources for this webpage:
The Engineer, 1869 and 1874
The History of Ellis & Everard, Ltd and Joseph Ellis and Sons, Ltd - published 1924
Markfield into the Millennium - Markfield Local History Group, published 1999
Mercian Geologist 2006
The pioneering Markfield to Bardon Wire Tramway - Andrew Moore, published in The Leicestershire Historian No 49, 2013
Markfield local history books - Di Lockley
Various newspaper archives
Contributors to the Bygone Markfield Facebook Group
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