Shap Granite Quarries

Overview

The source of Shap pink granite, one of Britain's most recognisable decorative building stones, quarried on an industrial scale since the 1860s and still worked today.

History

Small-scale, intermittent quarrying at Shap predates the 1860s, but large-scale extraction began only between 1864 and 1870, when Samuel Curteis -- previously a lessee of Craignair Quarry at Dalbeattie -- took a 21-year lease from the Lowther estate and formed the Shap and Dalbeattie Granite Company, the first in a long succession of companies to work the site continuously and on an industrial scale. Polishing of Shap granite began in 1868, and a narrow-gauge line connecting the pink quarry to the Wickersgill processing site operated from 1870 to 1953. Curteis's company eventually collapsed, reportedly owing around £40,000; after a period of closure, Gerald O'Dwyer Briggs registered the Shap Granite and Concrete Company to revive the business. Control passed in 1907-08 to Messrs Brookes Ltd of Halifax, an established quarrying firm since 1840, which completed its takeover on 1 January 1908 and renamed the business the Shap Granite Company. A subsequent 33-year period of ownership under a Mr Ward saw new crushing and screening plant built at the pink quarry between 1950 and 1953, and a major extension to the concrete pipe plant in 1955, diversifying into walling blocks and other concrete products. The business passed to the multinational RTZ, under whose ownership the Wickersgill/'blue' quarry was closed in 1987 with 26 redundancies; the pink quarry and Wickersgill site were later sold to outside interests, and since late 2014 the pink quarry has been operated by Armstrongs Aggregates, based in Horwich near Bolton.

Geology

Shap pink granite, a distinctive porphyritic granite quarried on an industrial scale from the 1860s.

Workings

The Shap granite outcrop covers a roughly oval area under two miles across on the eastern flank of Shap Fells; the quarry produces both light Shap granite, worked chiefly as aggregate, and dark Shap, used more often architecturally. Products range from rock armour for coastal and river defence to polished dimensional stone -- Shap granite was used in Manchester's Midland Hotel -- and crushed aggregate grades including crusher run and gabion fill.

Closure

Still active. After a period of closure the business was revived under the Shap Granite and Concrete Company.

What remains

Operated today by Armstrongs Aggregates, worked for crushed and dimensional stone and open to pre-arranged visits.

Related mines

• Craignair Quarry — Both were Victorian granite quarries whose trade depended on the railway reaching them, and both supplied dressed and polished monumental stone as well as setts; Craignair is named on the Shap record for the comparison.

Recorded claims

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

• Large-scale quarrying at Shap began only between 1864 and 1870, when Samuel Curteis took a 21-year lease from the Lowther estate and formed the Shap and Dalbeattie Granite Company. ¹
• Following the failure of Curteis's company, Gerald O'Dwyer Briggs revived the business as the Shap Granite and Concrete Company; control passed to Messrs Brookes Ltd of Halifax in 1907-08, who renamed it the Shap Granite Company; a subsequent long ownership under a Mr Ward saw new plant built in the 1950s; the business later passed to RTZ, which closed the Wickersgill/blue quarry in 1987. ¹
• Armstrongs Aggregates has operated Shap's pink quarry since late 2014. ^1,2
• A Geograph photograph of 2006 shows Shap Quarry, 'the home of pink Shap granite', at NY 556 084, 4 km north-north-west of Bretherdale Head. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) An Outline History of the Shap Granite Industry — Westmorland Geological Society / Geoff Brambles
2. (secondary) Shap Quarry — Armstrongs Group
3. (observational) Shap Quarry, 'the home of pink Shap granite' (Geograph, John H Darch, 2006, NY 556 084) — Geograph Britain and Ireland

Record created: 29 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026