Iclok - many thanks for putting in the Cowdale Limestone Quarry User Album the latest photographs of the five reinforced concrete buildings in the quarry (architectually termed "concrete masonary") for us to look at. Incidently English Heritage classed the dwelling house which was built by Charles Drake in 1873 of the "Patent Concrete Building Company" i.e.549 Lordship Lane, Southwick as a rare example of a nineteenth century house built of concrete when they listed this house as a Grade 2 Listed Building and it would appear to be in a far worse state of preservation than the quarry buildings! Surrounded by their summer greenery the buildings shew a complete contrast to the stark winter photos kindly taken by AR earlier in the year, they also shew the present use of the quarry which lies within an Area of Special Landscape adjacent to the Peak District National Park and is registered as Agricultural Land (there is also rare flora and fauna on this site covered by the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981). From a Derbyshire industrial archeology point of view, these are very important buildings of architectual design and the materials they were constructed in at the time of erection i.e. the date over a doorway of one of the buildings shews 1909 - 101 years ago! - something needs to be done about them, albeit there is a great shortage of funding and always will be. I have lived in Derby and the Peak District for almost sixty years of my life and I don't know of any other industrial quarry buildings like them, perhaps other members of the forum do? I've also been involved in the building construction business for many years of my life (on the admin side) so am experienced in costing, planning etc., the mind boggles at the unpractical cost of preservation that will be arrived at by so called experts in Government departments if consulted, who have had unlimited sources of money to fund such undertakings in the past and who have very little experience of economical costing in the present financial climate.
Toadstone - I fully understand your argument, having lived in the Peak District for many years I understand the problem of shortage of jobs and the low wages paid in the area, there needs to be other work available than tourism, quarrying, farming and lorry driving. This planning application causes one a very big dilemma when debating it, such as the possible loss of these very early industrial archaeolgical buidings constructed in reinforced concrete, which are unique and a very important part of Derbyshire's Industrial Archaeology, weighed against the provision of work for people living in and around the Buxton area. It's a bit like King Soloman deciding which of the two mothers who claimed the same baby should have it!