The carboniferous limestone rock in Longcliffe’s quarries was formed as sediment on the floor of the sea in the Carboniferous period, roughly 330 million years ago. At this time this area of Derbyshire was under a shallow tropical ocean, inhabited by shellfish, corals, sea lilies and microscopic seaweeds.

When these died their remains built up as multiple layers of shell debris which became compacted and hardened with time into limestone. It is these layers of strata that now outcrop into the dales of the White Peak area today. In many ways Derbyshire’s limestone formation can be likened  to the Pacific Atoll today with a scattering of small spluttering volcanoes which pour out lava and ash from time to time.  The Ash formed clay beds (horizontal) and clay faults (vertical) which can be associated with mineralization. The limestone in between was left very pure.

At our Brassington Moor Quarry, our scalping proccedure removes any residual clay and the pure limestone is further processed for sale into many high quality markets. This process has been developed and invested in by the Shields family from the very beginning of Brassington Moor Quarry nearly 100 years ago.

The same volcanic actively, to the south of Brassington Moor Quarry created the Dolomitization which has affected the limestone of our Ryder Point Quarry and created the Dolomitic Limestone extracted from this site. The Dolomitization of this rock created a high magnesium content light brown rock - often referred to as 'Golconda'. This name originally came from an historic mine that still remains under the quarry and stretches back to the original entrance below Harborough Rocks.