Middleton Limestone Mine was opened up in 1960 by Horace Killer the then Manager of Hopton Wood Stone Quarry he like my self one of the family of Killers who founded Killer Bros uarry in 1850

My 3XUncle William Killer who was a Joiner by trade was erecting a Workshop on land near his home at Middleton when in the process of digging out the foundations for the workshop he struck solid Hopton Wood Stone which was being quarried just above his land .Being an astute businessman he made an agreement with the owners of the quarry on Middleton Moor who were having problems meeting the orders of their customers to supply stone from his land . By the 1870s as his sons Adam Joseph William and John Killer became adults they took over the Quarry it then know as Killer Bros Hopton Wood Stone

(this is a true record as given in a legal document I have read when Joseph Killer the last brother living in 1905 and Court Case ensued re which quarries could legitimately call their product Hopton Wood Stone At the court Joseph gave a background to how his father began quarrying on the site. Killer Bros were granted the name

In 1906 Killer Bros was amalgamated with other quarries in the same vicinity and became Known as Hopton Wood Stone Firms

In Dec 5th 1905 my Grandfather William Flint was killed at Killer Bros Quarry when the face collapsed burying the Steam Crane he was driving and himself under tons of stone and dust KIllers hardly ever used explosives but chained out wedges of the mineral..My Grt Grandfather Henry Flint after serving as a Wharfinger and Station Master at Friden Wharf nr Hartington and Parsley Hay Station returned to Middleton and retired as a Scapler at his Uncle's Killer Bros Quarry (Henry in his late teens 1850s worked down The Bage Mine Bolehill where Henry Flint his cousin was Mining Agent followed in 1861 by Henry Flints father Herbert Flint whose son Sidney Flint married into the Birley family who owned a Monumental Quarry on Middleton Moor just above Killer Bros.. Birleys using a tramway which co joined with Sheldons of my kin Tramway at Redhills Quarry Middleton Top Sidney Flints sister in law via a Birley / Slack marriage was my wife's Gr Gr Grandmother Mary Evans nee Slack ..

William Killer was brother to my Gr Gr Gramndmother Mary Killer she wife of Samuel Flint they married 1830 My Gr Gr Grandfather Samuel Flint was at first an Overseer at Ratchwood Lead Mine Rise End Middleton (which in time Hopton Wood Stone owned) but then he was a Wharfinger at Middle Peak Wharf and Station Master at Steeplegrange when a Primitive Passenger Service was begun but soon ended..HIs cousin Joseph Flint was Wharfinger at Steeplegrange and also a Brick Manufacturer on land next to Steeplegrange Wharf which is still known to this day as Flints Wharf.. Brickfields Close a private housing estate is now built on Flints Brick Works ..One of my kinswomen May Flint lived at Wharf Cottages Steeplegarnge with her partner Hayden Spencer both deceased Hayden being my mother in laws cousin May daughter of Harry Flint Coal Merchant Steeplegrange deceased he Grandson of Joseph who was the Wharfinger and Brick Maker .

Middle Peak Quarry was founded by John Shaw of Bolehill he Nephew of my 4XGrandmother Anne Shaw who married Isaac Hoades..whose former 1690 - 1760 family co owned Ratchwood Founder, Orchard Grove and Ravenstor Mines with first Samuel Greensmith and then Robert Greensnith whose family built the Grange from whence Steeplegreange gets its name originally known as Steeple Hill Herbert Greensmith Beard of this family selling the estate to Sir Richard Arkwright who built his first Mill at Cromford from the ready dressed gritstone blocks..

John Shaw was partner with Peter Bowne who was already General Manager at The Butterly Company Quarry at Crich Peter born at Pentrich ..Their silent partner's were John Wilde John Shaws brother in law he a Lime Burner on Middle Peak and William Goodwin a Civil Engineer of Wigwell Grange son of Captain Frances Green Goodwin who met most of the finance to get the quarry up and running
By the time John Shaws sons were in charge they bought out the other partners ...When my wife and I married we lived near where the Shaws lived first at Rock House Old Lane Cromford Road and then Ferne House Cromford Road
Alfred Shaw who quarried on Colehills and Hoe Grange lived for a time at Ashleigh House Ravenstor Road which in recent years was an office used by Tarmac Roadstones my wifes cousin a Secretary there up to Middle Peak Closing down..

George Doxey of my wifes and my kin was also killed at Killer Bros Quarry in 1900

Henry you might be interested in the forum on Butterley engineering-the scrapman cometh,there is information on there abouth the quarries butterley owned.Also,has middle peak closed??

Middle Peak - Long closed see Album on here, I photographed it as best i could about a year ago!

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How long ago? am i getting mixed up with another quarry?

From memory Middle Peak mine reduced working and closed about 2005/06. I believe Paul Deakin and some of PDMHS were invited in for a last photographic trip just before it closed as some "t'owd mans" workings had been discovered. I visited the editor of the Bonsall Book who lived in Middleton-by-Wirksworth, when she was editing my section of the book (which was published in 2006), and her mentioning about these workings having been found and having had a trip in the mine to view them. I was very lucky to have been on an early PDMHS's trip underground in the mine about 1962/63. The workings must be very vast now.

p.s. Henry - We have been in touch in the past through the DerbysGen website.

Im not getting mixed up,it is middle peak i was thinking of.My cousin worked there driving a shovel.I wonder where he is now?? He never said owt,we are quite close too! will ask him.

Although they've ceased work at Middleton mine and the surface plant and buildings have been removed, Omya and Tarmac haven't given up their leases and the mine is on basic care and maintenance as far as I know. I've heard tell that it closed because UK sugar beet refiners who were a major customer for the high-purity lime it produced started using imported stuff. When that hikes in price, perhaps they'll start seeing sense in using British lime....

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AR - That's also where the majority of the limestone from the Tearsall quarry went in the 1970/80's - in the sugar beet factories in the Eastern Counties. Thanks for giving us the reason why demand for it went in decline.

p.s. Are you working at home or can you get through to Sheffield? Snow still on the ground down here, very exceptional having it remain for over nine days now. How are your horses enjoying this weather?

The Lead Mine workings which Middleton Mine broke into on the Hopton Quarry side of Middleton Mine were possibly Sname Mine which was last owned by my Grandfather John Walker although he let a Mr Hodson work it for a time I believe
Snake Mine is about 100 yards from the entrance of Hopton Quarry My Gr Gr Uncle Samuel J Sheldon worked Snake Mine up to 1920 as did his family before him I have record of some the output of ore mined there over the years...
S J Sheldon owned 22/24th share in the mine my Grt Grandfather Joseph Walker his brother in law 2/24th share
I have S J Sheldons original will

Albert Sheldon Grt Nephew of S J Sheldon owned Shellards Quarry Griffe Grange in the 1950s Stancliffe Stone now own the Quarry Alberts brother Eric was Transport Manager
Eric Sheldon was reared when his parents died by my wifes Grandfathere Herbert Evans who was a Kerb Sette maker at Hopton Wood Stone Middleton before which he worked down Golconda Mine when owned by George Henry Key
which S J Sheldon sold to Key in 1915...

Eric on leaving school worked for my father at Central Stores Middleton Dad a Master Grocer at Middleton and a Draper at Market Place Wirksworth Eric then joined the Army and saw action in the 2nd W.W. agter which he joined Albert at the Quarry

Tearsall Quarry is hopefully to be re opened soon by I believe Glebe Mining although as usual yelps of pain have been heard from local residents in the Wensley/Oker area who claim it will effect their lifestyle

What this country has to learn is do we want jobs and industry or do we want to slide into oblivion as a Nation

I lived quite happily as a lad under the shadow of Hopton Wood Stone Quarry Middleton which provided much needed work to Middleton Men As a Lad at Middleton School whenever the siren sounded for Blasting we kids were marched down into the Playground and under a High wall watched as large junks of Hopton Wood Stone flew over the school..The times Dads shop was hit I cannot count but we lived with it because it was the life blood of the village and i also then lived, when my wife and i married, within Blasting Shot of Middle Peak Quarry and thought nothing of it ..

AR - That's also where the majority of the limestone from the Tearsall quarry went in the 1970/80's - in the sugar beet factories in the Eastern Counties. Thanks for giving us the reason why demand for it went in decline.

p.s. Are you working at home or can you get through to Sheffield? Snow still on the ground down here, very exceptional having it remain for over nine days now. How are your horses enjoying this weather?

I've mostly been working from home this past week and a half, I tried going in this morning but the overnight drizzle has frozen on the roads in several places. I turned around at Hassop hall and came home. We've had snow on the ground to a greater or lesser degree since the weekend before Christmas, it's been snowing lightly all day but DCC to their credit show no sign of stopping gritting. Incidentally, if you watched BBC news Friday evening they reported from Parsley Hay, where traffic was struggling to get up the hill on the A515. On the subject of BBC news, they had a bit on this lunchtime from Glossop showing the amount of traffic heading up to Snake Pass and then being surprised it's closed "my satnav told me to go this way"....

Our ponies are coping in the snow and have good cover when the wind's from the north and east, although they seem pretty fed up with it now! I'm certainly fed up of carrying fodder through snowdrifts three to four times a day and de-icing their trough... 😠

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I believe that my old college mate Sam Wood was underground manager at Middleton in the 90s.

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AR - Imagine how Iclok's granddad and my dad (and many other Artillery men) coped with their horses during the bad winters of WW1 in France. Our two relatives served with the Royal Field Artillery's Munition Column attached to the 46th (North Midlands) Division. This was the first Territorial Army sent to France at the end of February, 1915 and it sailed from Southampton to Le Harve. Recently a friend who was visiting the PRO photographed part of the War Diaries for the Munition Column for me, it makes very interesting reading, especially about the horses.

Hi Sougher, probably with the same mixture of profanities and black humour that's getting me through at the moment!

I've heard tales from old hands in the Dales pony world of what it was like trying to keep ponies alive in the hills through the winters of 47/48 and 62/63 so I shouldn't complain too much....

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