A visit to Singleton Birch Quarry

Roratian Philip Lumley organised a visit to Singleton Birch Limestone quarry at Roxton. The visit was resrticted to 16 because  of the size of the minibus (tour bus).

The company was founded in 1815 and since then has been suplying industry (chemical, steel processesing) agriculture and construction. Currently, lime stone is being used as aggregate at the new Able site.

Having signed on at the main office we were kitted out with safety equipment (many people had brought sun glasses to counteract the glare from the chalk) and climbed into the mini bus. This took us into the quarry (between the motorway and the A18). Limestone is being extracted from this area and blasting takes place every day. The reason for this is that they do no want the stone to get too wet...this causes problems. The stone is crushed and put onto conveyor belts. It is sorted because it contains flints which are exracted and graded. Half of the output goes to the lime kilns. The rest has various uses.

Before quarrying starts the top soil is removed and saved. Rejected material is also saved (there used to be a lot more of this). When a site is exhausted the spoil and then top soil is returned. The area is landscaped to mimic the Wolds and we could see the outcome of this with a fairly new corn field. They also plant trees to reduce noise and dust, it also helps the environment (lorry wheels are also washed).

There is a tunnel under the motorway so that they can exploit the quarry on the north side.

The kilns operate as a continuous process and is strictly controlled. We visted the control room and the porcess was explained.

At the end of the visit we returned to the office and looked at the fossils from the quarry. Some ammonites were quite impressive. John(C) was slightly envious.

A previous owner donated 42% shares to the NSPC, and one was asociated with Aston Martin.

Report by Martyn Turner