Buddon Wood Quarry

Overview

A granite quarry at Mountsorrel in Charnwood Forest, opened in 1821 by the Earl of Lanesborough on his own ground after he bought the estate in 1803. It stayed a modest working for a century and a half. In the early 1970s Redland Roadstone began quarrying a new area of Buddon Wood, turning a sizeable hill into what is now Mountsorrel Quarry — for a time the largest granite production site in Europe.

History

The Earl of Lanesborough succeeded to the Danvers estate at Mountsorrel and in 1803 began leasing quarries on it; in 1821 he opened one of his own on the eastern fringe of Buddon Wood, later known as the Ashpit Quarry. Charnwood granite was by then already a national material: broken macadam from the Mountsorrel quarries had gone onto the turnpike between Market Harborough and Loughborough in 1781, a wharf was built on the Leicester Navigation in 1792 to handle the traffic, and by 1890 Charnwood stone was the main source of aggregate in Britain, producing over a million tonnes a year by 1900. Buddon Wood's transformation came in the 1960s and 70s. Redland Roadstone bought the Mountsorrel Granite Company in the 1960s, and in 1971 decided to concentrate its Leicestershire production in the Mountsorrel area. Larger-scale quarrying began in a new part of Buddon Wood in the early 1970s — 1974 by one account — including the installation of one of the world's largest rock crushers. As construction demand rose through the 1970s and 80s the operation became the largest granite production site in Europe. Redland was taken over by the French company Lafarge in 1997, and the site is now worked by Tarmac.

Geology

The Mountsorrel Complex, an Ordovician granodiorite intrusion — the exception among the Charnwood Forest quarries, which otherwise work the older Precambrian and Cambrian basement rocks of the Charnian Supergroup. Leicestershire is the largest producer of igneous rock in the country, and Buddon Wood is one of its four large quarrying operations alongside Cliffe Hill, Bardon Hill and Croft.

Geological setting: Greisen and Pegmatite Deposits (historical documentary reference)

Workings

An open granite quarry that grew by consuming the hill it stood on. The main processing plant on the site runs nine gyratory crushers, and one of the world's largest rock crushers was installed when the new area was opened in the early 1970s. A Site of Special Scientific Interest surrounds the quarry rim and is managed alongside the working.

Closure

Still working. Buddon Wood did not close so much as become something else: the modern Mountsorrel Quarry occupies the ground and the older name now describes the site rather than a separate undertaking.

What remains

An active quarry. The Site of Special Scientific Interest around the rim is managed under an annual landscape programme worked out with the planning authorities, Natural England and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

Related mines

• Mountsorrel Quarry — The same ground: Buddon Wood was the Lanesborough quarry of 1821, and the new workings opened there in the early 1970s became the present Mountsorrel Quarry. The two records cover the earlier and the modern phases of one site.
• Nunckley Quarry — Both were Mountsorrel company workings served by its branch lines; Nunckley was leased in the 1890s for Great Central ballast and closed in 1922, while Buddon Wood went on to become the main quarry.

Nearby mines

• Mountsorrel Quarry — 1.4 km NW
• Nunckley Quarry — 2.5 km SW
• Swithland Slate Quarry — 4.7 km SW
• Longcliffe Quarry — 8.6 km NW
• Groby Granite Quarry — 9.4 km SW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Buddon Wood opened in 1821, after the Earl of Lanesborough bought the estate in 1803 and developed quarries on it; the quarry he opened on the eastern fringe of Buddon Wood later became known as the Ashpit Quarry. ¹
• Redland Roadstone bought the Mountsorrel Granite Company in the 1960s and decided in 1971 to concentrate its Leicestershire production at Mountsorrel; larger-scale quarrying began in a new area of Buddon Wood in the early 1970s, including one of the world's largest rock crushers, and a sizeable hill has been turned into the present Mountsorrel Quarry. ²
• As demand rose through the 1970s and 80s Mountsorrel became the largest granite production site in Europe; Leicestershire is the largest producer of igneous rock in the country, with 12.877 million tonnes in 2005 from four large operations, Buddon Wood among them. ^1,2
• The quarry works the Ordovician granodiorite of the Mountsorrel Complex, the exception among the Charnwood quarries, which otherwise exploit the Precambrian and Cambrian basement of the Charnian Supergroup. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) The Rock Quarries of Charnwood Forest — East Midlands Geological Society
2. (secondary) Looking into the future at Mountsorrel — Aggregates Business

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026