Lords Quarry

Overview

One of the Elterwater Green Slate Company's three quarries in Langdale, worked for green slate from at least the 1880s. It stood idle in 1910 and came back in the 1920s, and the official returns still had it working in 1950.

History

Lords was one of three quarries the Elterwater Green Slate Company worked in Langdale, with Bayes Brown and Thrang Crag; Isaac Williams was manager from at least 1883. The company is returned against the quarry through the 1880s and its slate is given in the official lists as green slate from 1894 onwards.

Employment ran between about thirty and forty-six through the 1890s and 1900s — 36 in 1894, 46 in 1896, 40 in 1900, 35 in 1902, 29 in 1905 — and then the 1910 return records the quarry as not worked. It reopened small: five people in 1929 and again in 1930, twenty by 1935. By the 1930s it belonged to Buttermere Green Slate Quarries Ltd, and slate is returned from it as late as 1950.

Quarrying in this valley is much older than any of that. It had started in earnest by the middle of the eighteenth century and at its peak there were around thirty active quarries in the district; Elterwater quarry itself is still worked today, by Burlington Stone.

Geology

Lakeland green slate of the Borrowdale Volcanic Group — a metamorphosed volcanic ash between about 450 and 500 million years old, which is what the whole Langdale slate district works.

Workings

Worked both underground and at surface: the returns split the workforce roughly evenly between below and above ground through the 1890s and 1900s — eighteen and eighteen in 1894, twenty and twenty-six in 1896.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The official returns record slate from the quarry as late as 1950.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of this quarry as it now stands. Elterwater quarry, at the foot of the same valley, is still in production.

None recorded.

Related mines

• Elterwater Quarry — Lord's is one of the quarries grouped as the Elterwater Quarries.
• Hodge Close Quarry — Both passed to Buttermere Green Slate Quarries Ltd, which by the 1930s and 1940s held slate quarries across Langdale, Tilberthwaite and the Honister group.
• Parrock Quarry — Both were Buttermere Green Slate quarries in 1930, listed on the same company return with Honister, Yew Craggs, Quay Foot and High Fellside.

Disasters & major incidents

• Lords Quarry rockfall, 1904
  16 August 1904 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  On 16 August 1904 a mass of rock came away from a back or slip above three men working in the Elterwater Green Slate Company's Lords quarry in Langdale, killing Thomas Greenhow at once and so injuring James Hewitson that he died three days later.

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum's company record for the Elterwater Green Slate Co., Ltd. lists three quarries in Langdale — Bayes Brown, Lord's and Thrang Crag — with Isaac Williams as manager from at least 1883. ¹
• The official returns give 36 employed in 1894, 46 in 1896, 40 in 1900, 35 in 1902 and 29 in 1905, then record the quarry as not worked in 1910. It returns with five people in 1929 and 1930 and twenty by 1935, under Buttermere Green Slate Quarries Ltd, and slate is returned from it in 1950. ²
• Slate is returned from Lords from 1882 and as green slate from 1894; the quarry was Buttermere Green Slate Quarries Ltd's in the 1930s, employing five in 1929 and 1930 and twenty in 1935, and slate is still returned from it in 1950. ²
• The Old Cumbria Gazetteer lists Lord's Quarry with Robinson Quarry and Pepper's Quarry as the Elterwater Quarries, shown as 'Elter Water Quarries' on Postlethwaite's 1877 map of the Lake District mining field. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Elterwater Green Slate Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Lords (Slate) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Elterwater Quarries, Elterwater (Old Cumbria Gazetteer) — Old Cumbria Gazetteer (lakesguides.co.uk)

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026