Burlington Slate Quarries
Encyclopedia
Burlington Slate Quarries are located near Kirkby-in-Furness
in Cumbria
, England
. The quarries have produced a characteristic blue-grey slate
for hundreds of years, with large-scale production starting in the early 19th century, when the Cavendish family
organised small-scale quarrying activities by local farmers into a larger group of quarries, which then attracted others into the area to live and work in the quarries from the 1820s onwards.
The quarrying at Burlington can be directly related to the development of Kirkby, which merged from six smaller farming hamlets
: Soutergate, Wall End, Beck Side, Sand Side, Marshside and Chapels. The opening of the slate quarry helped merge these together, the name Kirkby dating from the construction of the Cumbrian Coast
railway line to the village.
The quarry is not worked on a galleries system, as many quarries are, but as an enormous pit several hundred feet in depth. The quarry operations have spread throughout and under Kirkby Moor
, but now production only takes place at the very bottom of the quarry; with the rock being removed via a cutting from a shallower part of the pit.
Typical of many Welsh slate quarries, such as Dinorwig, Penrhyn and Rhiw-Bach, Burlington adopted the use of inclined railways to provide material transport from the quarries. The lowest of the series was the Sandside, which connected Burlington with the port and mainline railway at Sandside on the Duddon Estuary
.
Kirkby-in-Furness
Kirkby-in-Furness is a village in the Furness area of Cumbria, England. It is about 5 km south of Broughton in Furness and 8 km northwest of Ulverston. It is one of the largest villages on the peninsula's north-western coast, looking out over the Duddon estuary and the mountains of the...
in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The quarries have produced a characteristic blue-grey slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
for hundreds of years, with large-scale production starting in the early 19th century, when the Cavendish family
House of Cavendish
Cavendish is the surname of a British noble family, also known as the House of Cavendish, descended from Sir John Cavendish of Cavendish in the county of Suffolk Cavendish is the surname of a British noble family, also known as the House of Cavendish, descended from Sir John Cavendish of Cavendish...
organised small-scale quarrying activities by local farmers into a larger group of quarries, which then attracted others into the area to live and work in the quarries from the 1820s onwards.
The quarrying at Burlington can be directly related to the development of Kirkby, which merged from six smaller farming hamlets
Hamlets
Hamlets is the name of an open source system for generating web-pages originally developed by René Pawlitzek at IBM...
: Soutergate, Wall End, Beck Side, Sand Side, Marshside and Chapels. The opening of the slate quarry helped merge these together, the name Kirkby dating from the construction of the Cumbrian Coast
Cumbrian Coast Line
The Cumbrian Coast Line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues via Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands to Carnforth, where it connects with the West Coast Main...
railway line to the village.
The quarry is not worked on a galleries system, as many quarries are, but as an enormous pit several hundred feet in depth. The quarry operations have spread throughout and under Kirkby Moor
Kirkby Moor
Kirkby Moor is a poorly defined moorland area in southern Cumbria, England, named after the village of Kirkby-in-Furness, but stretching both sides of the A5092 road, and thus spanning the border of the Lake District National Park...
, but now production only takes place at the very bottom of the quarry; with the rock being removed via a cutting from a shallower part of the pit.
Typical of many Welsh slate quarries, such as Dinorwig, Penrhyn and Rhiw-Bach, Burlington adopted the use of inclined railways to provide material transport from the quarries. The lowest of the series was the Sandside, which connected Burlington with the port and mainline railway at Sandside on the Duddon Estuary
River Duddon
The Duddon is a river of north-west England. It rises at a point above sea level near the Three Shire Stone at the highest point of Wrynose Pass . The river descends to the sea over a course of about before entering the Irish Sea at the Duddon Sands. For its entire length the Duddon forms the...
.