Dowlow Works

Overview

Dowlow is a limestone quarry and works on Sterndale Moor south of Buxton, in operation since 1899 and holding extraction permissions until 2046. It produces agricultural lime, crushed rock, white limestone and asphalt products, and shares its stretch of moor with two other large quarries, Brierlow and Hindlow — a quarrying triumvirate that between them dominate the ground.

History

Quarrying at Dowlow dates from 1899, and the works have held permission to extract until 2046. The site sits on Sterndale Moor, near the village of Earl Sterndale, in an area of the Peak District where limestone working has shaped the landscape more thoroughly than almost anywhere else in Britain: Brierlow, Hindlow and Dowlow together dominate this stretch of moor. The works lie close to two closed railways, the Ashbourne line and the Cromford and High Peak Railway, shut in the 1950s and 1960s. Passenger and workmen's trains once called at Dowlow Halt. In the twenty-first century only a stub of the line from Buxton to Hurdlow remains in use; the rest is now the High Peak Trail. By 2010 the quarry was described as Lafarge Aggregates' second most important site in the United Kingdom, producing over 1.5 million tonnes of limestone a year, with Brierlow and Hindlow alongside it operated by Lhoist UK. Dowlow and Hindlow together cover approximately three square kilometres.

Geology

Dowlow works the Carboniferous limestone of the Derbyshire Peak, the same thick, pure shelf limestone that made the Buxton area the centre of the British lime trade. The rock lies in massive beds, and the quarry's products — agricultural lime, crushed rock, white limestone and the aggregate for asphalt — depend on its consistency and chemical purity rather than on any structure within it. No mineral veins are worked here; this is bulk stone.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A large opencast limestone quarry with processing plant on site, where the stone is graded, crushed and washed for its various markets, and an asphalt plant alongside. The scale is the point: Dowlow and neighbouring Hindlow cover about three square kilometres between them, and a visitor in 2010 remarked that the scale of these quarries is hard to take in. The works were laid out beside the railway, with their own halt on the Ashbourne line.

Closure

Still worked, with extraction permissions running to 2046.

What remains

A fully operational quarry and works. A visitor in August 2010 found all three Sterndale Moor quarries very much live, though noting that production had dipped over the preceding year, and that the sheer size of the sites made it unlikely one would meet anybody. A photograph from March 2010 shows the grading, crushing and washing plant at work.

Not applicable: a working quarry and processing plant. The nearest thing to a relic is the trackbed of the closed Ashbourne line and Cromford and High Peak Railway beside it, now the High Peak Trail, and the site of Dowlow Halt where the workmen's trains once stopped.

Related mines

• Tunstead Quarry — Two of the great Buxton-area limestone quarries working the same Derbyshire Carboniferous limestone for the same lime and aggregate trades, Tunstead from 1929 and Dowlow from 1899, and between them a large part of the reason the Peak District National Park boundary was drawn to leave this ground outside it.

Nearby mines

• Harpur Hill Quarry — 4.7 km NW
• Hubberdale Mines — 6.0 km E
• Mandale Mine — 6.2 km SE
• Magpie Mine — 7.1 km E
• Tunstead Quarry — 7.1 km N

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 quarry has been in operation since 1899 and holds extraction permissions until 2046. ^1,2
• The works produce agricultural lime, crushed rock, white limestone and associated asphalt products. ¹
• By 2010 Dowlow was Lafarge Aggregates' second most important site in the UK, producing over 1.5 million tonnes of limestone a year. ²
• Sterndale Moor is dominated by three limestone quarries — Brierlow, Hindlow and Dowlow — of which Brierlow and Hindlow were operated by Lhoist UK Ltd in 2010. ²
• Dowlow and Hindlow together cover approximately 3 square kilometres. ³
• The works lie close to the former Ashbourne Line and Cromford and High Peak Railway, closed in the 1950s and 1960s; passenger and workmen's trains once stopped at Dowlow Halt, and only a stub of the line from Buxton to Hurdlow remains in use, the rest being the High Peak Trail. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Dowlow Works — Wikipedia
2. (observational) Brierlow, Hindlow & Dowlow Quarries, Derbyshire (visit report, August 2010) — 28DaysLater
3. (observational) Dowlow Works (photograph, March 2010) — Geograph Britain and Ireland

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026