Robin Longbottom on how the area’s quarries were the bedrock of industry, but not without their dangers

IN 1897, George Feather was 35 years old and living in Ingrow Lane, Keighley, with his wife and young family.

He and his father, William, were both quarrymen, known locally as delvers, and had been working at Bracken Bank Quarry for several years.

On Friday, December 3, George was standing some 50 feet up the quarry face and “baring” on a ledge about ten feet wide. Baring was a method of loosening large lumps of stone from the bedrock with a gavelock, more commonly known today as a crowbar. Another man called Spencer had been posted to look out for any landslips from above and as he was watching he noticed a large lump of earth giving way. A warning was shouted to George but as he attempted to get out of way he was hit and swept off the ledge to the bottom of the quarry, where he died.

An inquest was held on December 6 at the Wesleyan School in Ingrow and a verdict of death by misadventure was recorded by the coroner. George was buried the following day at Ingrow Church.

Quarrymen used a gavelock to break out large lumps of rock to avoid blasting with explosives, which often caused too much damage to the stone. The gavelock was used to exploit natural cracks in the bedrock or to bring down the rock face by removing softer rock, such as shale, from below by a process known as plowing. In the plowing method, several quarrymen worked close to the rock face with a gavelock sometimes 15 feet or more in length. A photograph taken at West End Quarry near Haworth in the 1920s shows four men using a long gavelock to plow out shale at the bottom of the quarry face. Another man watched on at ground level to keep an eye out for any movement in the rock and often a second man was stationed above to also signal if he saw cracks appear and give the men working below time to retreat to a safe distance. The photograph has a note on the back to say that the Inspector for Mines and Quarries "was much impressed with our method of plowing in a thin bed of shale".

After rock had been broken out, it was dragged off using chains and horses or lifted out by steam crane. Quarrymen then split it with wedges or by a method known as plug and feather. For plug and feather, holes were first drilled into the stone in a straight line and then two metal shims, called feathers, were dropped in followed by a tapered plug. Each plug was struck in turn until the stone split. Once the stone had been reduced to a more manageable size it was passed to a banker hand, who finally dressed the stone.

The South Craven and Keighley area produced stone of many qualities for a great variety of uses. Some quarries were opened to extract road stone, others for field walls, flagstones and slates. The stone from Farnhill Quarry was used for walling buildings whilst the stone from Strikes Quarry at Sutton-in-Craven was sought-after for windowsills, headers and door jambs. Stone from a quarry near Steeton was used to build docks in Liverpool and for facing St Peter’s Roman Catholic Cathedral at Lancaster, built in the 1850s. Millstones for pulping wood to make paper were exported from Eastburn Quarry to America and smaller ones to grind corn were once quarried at Silsden Nab and along Addingham Edge.

Stone is still quarried today at Branshaw Quarry near Oakworth and Brow Moor Edge at Haworth, but the once huge local stone industry and the old-time quarrymen are both now long gone.