Description and History of Site:-
All plant and ancillary structures were demolished or removed when the site was closed down in 1998, and there has been extensive landscaping within the quarry to help create a local wildlfie reserve and trail. Until 1998 it had the full crushing and screening plant, a concrete block plant, workshops, offices, weighbridge and other ancillary structures.

The quarry floor in the north-west quadrant is a rather unique feature being a limestone palaeokarst surface. It was opened up by the Craven Lime Company to produce crushed stone and this early quarry was a linear working within which the rail siding now lies. In 1895 it employed 6 to 8 men so was not a major operation. It was abandoned in 1907, being deemed to be too remote, and was only intermittently worked after that by other unknown operators until Horace Austin & Sons of Leeds took it on, installing crushing and screening plant mainly producing pulverised limestone for agricultural use. In 1952 they put in for planning consent to extend the quarry southwards but were only granted an extension of 4 years so in 1953 they sub-let it to Adam Lythgoe of Warrington which company was expanding its agricutural lime business. In 1955 they were granted a further extension on the quarry's life and in 1956 they installed new crushing and screening plant and bought out Austin's interests. By 1962 the company was called Ribblehead Quarry Ltd, agricultural lime production was wound down and a concrete block facilty was built. In 1971 the site was put up for sale, some plant was demolished and the rest mothballed and in 1973 ARC Ltd bought it. In 1974 they applied for new planning consent and reinstalled the rail sidings and intended to replace the crushing and screening plant with the aim of re-opening in full production in 1979 to service a major contract at Selby. This fell through and the site never re-opened. In 1998 ARC (now Hanson) gave up all their rights to quarry stone at Ribblehead and in 2000 it was gifted to English Nature (now Natural England).

Further Reading and References:-
Johnson, D. 2006. 'An introductory history of Ribblehead Quarry, Ingleton' Industrial Heritage 32 (1), pp. 18-24.
Johnson, D. 2010. Limestone industries of the Yorkshire Dales. Stroud: Amberley, passim.

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Key Words :- limestone quarry disused

Viewing the Site :- the main quarry has open access as part of a heritage and nature trail; the original quarry working lies within the rail sidings and has no public access

Address :- Ingleton, North Yorkshire
Grid Ref :- SD 767 786
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.202614 , Long -2.358681
Local Authority :- Craven District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site of Special Scientific Interest SSSI
Site Condition :- Site cleared - no above ground remains visible
Site Dates :- late 1870s or early - 1998
Record Date :- 30 March 2016

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © David Johnson