Sir – I would like to find out if any of your readers can help me with some research I am doing into aspects of the history of the lime works and limestone quarries in the Dales.
I am particularly interested to find out about the narrow gauge tramways/railways to transport the stone within quarries up until the 1960s.
I am not only interested in mechanical haulage (although I have found that a number of quarries used small petrol or diesel locos) but all aspects of rail transport within the quarries, including man and horse power and the use of rope-worked inclines and aerial ropeways.
Also of interest to me is how the tracks were laid out in the quarries and the methods of working them.
The quarries I am particularly interested in are: Swinden and Threshfield/Skirethornes near Grassington; Craven/Langcliffe, Foredale at Helwith Bridge and Horton in Ribblesdale; Ribblehead; Giggleswick; Raygill at Lothersdale; Thornton Rock at Thornton in Craven; Broughton, Haw Bank, Skibden and Massa Flats near Skipton; Cool Scar at Kilnsey.
Many of these quarries were owned or taken over by either P W Spencer or John Delaney (later becoming Settle Limes Ltd).
If any readers have information, stories, anecdotes or photographs, I really would be interested to hear about them with a view to adding them to a magazine article I am preparing.
Can people email me at graniteboss@talktalk.net Thank you very much.
Stewart Liles, Guiseley
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