BB: Limestone Traditional Cache
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Size: 
(small)
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The Bardsea Branch (BB) : intended originally as a new main line to Barrow only two miles were ever constructed crossing the Ulverston canal on an opening bridge and terminating at Priory Station just short of the village of Bardsea. The line opened for traffic on 27th June 1883.
Plumpton Quarries: he limestone outcrops of Plumpton have been exploited by various organisations for at least three centuries.
The stone would have been used for walling, construction work and as a flux in in the iron furnaces at Newland and Backbarrow.
When burnt to produce lime it provides fertiliser and mortar for building. The Plumpton Viaduct embankment and canal pier are made of local stone.
Whilst some parts of the quarries are still visible most of the workings are hidden under thousands of tonnes of landfill.
Two kinds of limestone are found here, a white mountain limestone and a darker kind, the grey limestone, much more suited to construction.
The Ordanance Survey map of 1850 shows five quarries having been worked prior to that time. The grey quarries were initially serviced by a hard core track leading to a timber warf. Whilst the track exists all that remains of the warf are the rotting foundations which can be seen at low tide just beyond the ‘swimming nets’ at Canal Foot.
By the 1900s the quarries at the northern end of Plumpton had been considerably enlarged and a substantial pier constructed onto Plumpton Bight. The foundations of this warf and once again the track / mineral line to it can be seen close to the Tridley Point Disaster cache.
The North Lonsdale Iron and Steel works used significant amounts of the stone, in some years as much as 10,000 tons.
This volume necessitated a railway line to be constructed through Plumton Junction. Wagons were driven to the quarry sidings to be filled with stone, they were then reversed out onto another line before going forward once more through Plumton Junction to the works.
Whilst the tracks themselves have long since been removed the triangular arrangement of railway embankments can still readily be traced and walked upon.
The sidings were constructed such that the quarry floor was higher than the railway line to facilitate loading.
The quarries were exploited until the late 1940’s During the 1980’s and 1990’s the largest Iron Pit Spring Quarry was completely filled with landfill and covered with a layer of soil and grassed over.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
oruvaq gerr, nybat fvqvat
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