Viewly Hill Ganister Quarry

Overview

A tiny ganister working on the moor above Tow Law, held in the 1920s by the Sheffield refractory firm Pickford, Holland & Co. Five people worked it in 1921 and two in 1923, the year it closed.

History

Ganister is a hard, very pure siliceous sandstone found under coal seams, and it is quarried for one reason: ground up and fired, it makes the silica brick that lines a steel furnace. The moors round Tow Law carried several small ganister workings, and Viewly Hill was one of the last of them. Pickford, Holland & Co. of Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, were refractory brick makers. Their works were the Eclipse Ganister Works in Sheffield, the Eclipse Silica Brick Works at Crook in County Durham, and Mooredge Colliery and its fire brick and ganister works at Totley. Viewly Hill fed that business, as did Bounder House Quarry a mile away, which the same firm held in the same decade and which passed afterwards to the Consett Iron Company. The scale was minute. The official returns give five employed in 1921 — four below ground and one at surface — two in 1923, and five in 1924, the last two years both marked abandoned. The quarry closed in 1923.

Geology

Ganister: the hard, fine-grained, almost pure silica sandstone that occurs as a seat earth beneath coal seams in the Carboniferous. Its value is its purity, because silica brick made from it survives temperatures that would destroy an ordinary firebrick.

Workings

Very small, and mostly underground despite being returned as a quarry: four of the five workers in 1921 were below ground.

Closure

Closed in 1923. The 1923 and 1924 returns both mark the quarry abandoned.

What remains

No account of the site as it now stands has been found.

None recorded.

Nearby mines

• Butsfield Quarry — 4.7 km N
• Roddymoor Colliery — 6.6 km SE
• Frosterley Marble Quarries — 7.6 km W
• Harehope Gill Mine — 7.9 km W
• Cornsay Colliery — 8.0 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 official returns give five employed in 1921 — four below ground, one at surface — two in 1923 and five in 1924, the last two both marked abandoned. Ganister is returned in 1921, 1923 and 1924, with Pickford, Holland & Co. as owner in the 1920s, and the quarry closed in 1923. ¹
• Refractory brick manufacturers with their head office at Attercliffe Road, Sheffield. Their works were the Eclipse Ganister Works at Attercliffe Road; the Eclipse Silica Brick Works at Crook, County Durham; and Mooredge Colliery and its fire brick and ganister works at Totley, Sheffield. ²
• Bounder House Quarry, a mile east at Tow Law, worked ganister from at least 1884 under W. Rutter, passed to Pickford, Holland & Co. in the 1920s — the same decade as Viewly Hill — and then to the Consett Iron Co. Ltd. in the 1930s. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Viewly Hill (Ganister) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Pickford, Holland and Co — Grace's Guide
3. (secondary) Bounder House Quarry (Ganister) — Durham Mining Museum

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