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The Minera Limeworks were extensive
lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
quarries
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
and
kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
s at
Minera
Minera ( cy, Mwynglawdd; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It adjoins the village of Coedpoeth.
The community, which in addition to Minera village includes a number of smaller hamlets such as Gwynfryn and New Brigh ...
in
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. It was located at , near the villages of
Gwynfryn,
Minera
Minera ( cy, Mwynglawdd; ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It adjoins the village of Coedpoeth.
The community, which in addition to Minera village includes a number of smaller hamlets such as Gwynfryn and New Brigh ...
, and
Coedpoeth and was locally referred to as ''The Calch''.
History
The Minera Limeworks were once the largest lime workings in the north of Wales.
Limeburning at Minera is recorded from as early as 1620 but the Minera Lime Company was established in 1852. The total output from the Minera area quarries was estimated, in 1859, to be around 300,000 tons, with 200,000 tons of this converted to lime.
The Minera Lime Company became a limited company in 1865, and this prompted some heavy cash injection into the works. Using this money, the company erected a "
Hoffmann kiln
The Hoffmann kiln is a series of batch process kilns. Hoffmann kilns are the most common kiln used in production of bricks and some other ceramic products. Patented by German Friedrich Hoffmann for brickmaking in 1858, it was later used for lime ...
". Originally destined for brickmaking, it was soon converted to limeburning. This kiln still exists and is one of three that were purpose-built for lime burning left in the UK: another is located at
Langcliffe in Yorkshire, another is located at
Llanymynech Limeworks.
The quarries had their own
steam locomotive and hundred of open coal wagons and closed lime wagons at its peak.
Hornby Railways
Hornby Railways is a British model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, ...
and
Dapol
Dapol Ltd is a model railway manufacturer based in Chirk, Wales. The factory where some of the design and manufacturing take place is just over the border in England. The company is known for its model railway products in N gauge, OO gauge a ...
both have model wagons detailing the Minera Lime Co. It also had extensive kilns, still there to this day.
The works closed in 1972 and the
Wrexham and Minera Branch
The Wrexham and Minera Railway or Wrexham and Minera Branch was a railway line in North Wales between the city of Wrexham, the village of Brymbo where it served the Brymbo Steelworks, and the lead mines and limeworks at Minera. A further bran ...
railway lines were pulled up at around the same time.
Current usage
Blasting and quarrying of limestone, used for road building materials, continued at the site until 1993.
For many years since closure, the quarry served as storage for road building materials, and a tipple for them was built, but was soon abandoned. In 2004-05 the quarry was subject to a cleanup operation, where all the materials were taken and the whole area flattened.
Tarmac (a supplier of materials to the building trade) who had taken interest in the site took several core samples and found the quarry to still be a viable source of lime.
Lafarge Aggregates owned the site until recently, following their take over of
Redland plc Redland or Redlands may refer to:
Places Australia
*Redland City, a local government area in South East Queensland
**Electoral district of Redlands
* SCECGS Redlands, an independent school in Cremorne, New South Wales
Canada
*Redland, Alber ...
and erected large amounts of fencing around most of the site as well as signage advising to stick to signed footpaths, restricting movement around the quarry for health and safety purposes. Lafarge had no interest in resuming quarrying operations at the site here.
The Minera Quarry Trust negotiated with Lafarge about the future of the site. Minera Quarry Trust was established in 2005 with the explicit aim of conserving the former quarry site for the benefit of the public. Since then the trust has made significant progress in developing a plan of action for the site that encompasses both short term improvements and long term sustainability for the site. The Trust worked in partnership with
North Wales Wildlife Trust
The North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT) (Welsh: ''Ymddiriedolaeth Natur Gogledd Cymru'') is the Wildlife Trust for North Wales. Established in 1962, it covers the vice counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Merionethshire, Denbighshire and Flint ...
to develop the project and received political endorsement from
Wrexham County Borough Council
Wrexham County Borough Council () is the governing body for Wrexham County Borough, a principal area in north Wales, covering Wrexham and the surrounding area.
History
Elections take place every five years. The Labour Party held power on the ...
.
North Wales Wildlife Trust purchased the site for £1 from Tarmac, who also donated £100,000 so work could be carried out to make the site safe for public access. The site was officially opened on 2 June 2018 by
Mike Dilger
Mike Dilger (born 7 November 1966) is an English ecologist, ornithologist, television presenter, and the wildlife reporter on the BBC television programme ''The One Show''. He attended the University of Nottingham and UCNW Bangor in north Wales ...
as their 36th Wildlife Reserve in North Wales.
The quarry contains entrances to the important caves
Ogof Dydd Byraf
Ogof Dydd Byraf is a cave which extends under Esclusham Mountain in the north-east Wales from its entrance in the south face of the Minera Limeworks quarry. It was originally discovered and explored in 1964 by the Wrexham Caving Club, before it ...
and
Ogof Llyn Du whose passages come very close to
Ogof Cefn-y-Gist and
Ogof Llyn Parc
Ogof Llyn Parc usually known as Pool Park is a cave on Esclusham Mountain above Wrexham, Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and we ...
.
starting in the quarry linked to many underground rivers.
See also
*
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
*
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
References
External links
PhotographsNorth Wales Wildlife Trust
{{coord, 53.06001, N, 3.11608, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SJ253520), display=title
Wrexham County Borough
Defunct mining companies of the United Kingdom
Lime kilns in the United Kingdom