Cove Quarries, Coniston

Overview

A line of small silver-grey slate quarries on the south-western flank of the Old Man of Coniston, above the hollow called The Cove. Worked from about 1855 by local account, they never employed more than a couple of dozen people, were suspended and restarted more than once, and were returned as not worked after September 1934.

History

The Cove quarries lie on the Walna Scar side of the Old Man of Coniston, above the wet hollow of The Cove below Dow Crag, in the same band of cleaved volcanic tuff that gives the Old Man its silver-grey slate. The Coniston Local History Society reported in 2010 that it had received an account of operations at Cove from about 1855 to the middle of the twentieth century from an elderly man whose father and grandfather had worked there; the written record picked up by the Durham Mining Museum from the Lists of Mines begins in 1900. In 1900 the quarry was in the hands of F. Wickwar, returning slate with nine people, four of them below ground. It peaked in 1902 at twenty-two, twelve of them underground, and by 1905 was down to six and marked as suspended. By the 1910s it was held by the Broughton Moor Slate Co., but was returned as not worked in 1915 and again in 1921, then reappeared with four people in 1923 and 1924. In 1930 it belonged to Broughton Moor Green Slate Quarries Ltd, the company that was building Broughton Moor into the largest slate mine in England, which held Cove alongside its Lag Bank quarry at Coniston with one man below ground and two above. The Lists also name James and William Marr as owners in the 1930s. The museum records the quarry as closed in September 1934 and not worked in 1935 or 1936; by 1935 the Broughton Moor company's Coniston interest was Lag Bank alone. The local account of working into the middle of the century may reflect later intermittent or unreturned work, and the two are kept side by side here.

Geology

The quarries work the silver-grey slate of the Old Man of Coniston, cleaved volcanic tuffs of the Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group rather than a sedimentary mudstone slate.

Geological setting: Slate and Regional Metamorphism (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A line of open quarries and spoil tips along the south-western flank of the fell, with some underground working: the Lists of Mines put between one and twelve people below ground in the years the quarry was active. Nothing more specific about the layout has been found in the sources read.

Closure

Returned as closed in September 1934 and as not worked in 1935 and 1936. The quarry had already stood idle in 1915 and 1921 and was tiny in every year returned, so its end looks like the running-down of a marginal working rather than a single event. A local family account has work continuing into the middle of the century.

What remains

Photographs on Geograph from 2012 and 2018 show a line of disused quarries and spoil tips scarring the south-western flank of the Old Man above The Cove, with the top of one old shed still visible among the spoil.

Quarry faces, spoil tips and the remains of at least one shed, seen in 2012 and 2018 photographs.

Related mines

• Lag Bank Quarry — Both held by Broughton Moor Green Slate Quarries Ltd in the 1930 List of Mines, the company's two Coniston quarries.

Nearby mines

• Coniston Copper Mines — 1.9 km NE
• Greenburn Mine — 3.7 km N
• Tilberthwaite — 4.6 km NE
• Parrock Quarry — 6.0 km NE
• Hodge Close Quarry — 6.1 km NE

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.

• The Lists of Mines name F. Wickwar in the 1900s, the Broughton Moor Slate Co. in the 1910s and Broughton Moor Green Slate Quarries Ltd and James and William Marr in the 1930s, with 9 employed in 1900, 22 in 1902, 6 in 1905 (suspended), none in 1915 and 1921, 4 in 1923 and 1924 and 3 in 1930. ^1,2
• The Durham Mining Museum records the quarry as closed in September 1934 and not worked in 1935 or 1936. ²
• The Coniston Local History Society reported in 2010 having received a family account of operations at Cove from about 1855 to the middle of the twentieth century. (uncertain) ³
• Geograph photographs from 2012 and 2018 show a line of disused quarries and spoil tips on the south-western flank of the Old Man, with the top of an old shed visible. ^4,5
• The silver-grey slates of Coniston Old Man come from cleaved tuffs of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Broughton Moor Green Slate Quarries Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Cove (Slate) — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) CATMHS Newsletter No. 101, November 2010 (Coniston Local History Society report) — Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society
4. (observational) Cove Quarries (Geograph photo 5648334, 2018) — Geograph
5. (observational) Spoil heaps, Cove Quarries, Old Man of Coniston (Geograph photo 2824490, 2012) — Geograph
6. (secondary) Slate — the Cumbrian slate industry, its geology, working and decline — Cumbria Industrial History Society

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026