The Buxton Story

Buxton Lime Firms Co. Ltd.

Our story starts as early as 1874 when John Brunner and Ludwig Mond established the Solvay process for the manufacture of soda ash at Northwich. The raw materials for this process were salt (obtained locally) and limestone or lime from Derbyshire.

Competition to supply was fierce and in 1891 thirteen of the surviving owners amalgamated their seventeen quarries into Buxton Lime Firms and delegated control to four directors. Under their guidance the price of stone and lime increased thus generating the capital needed to start a process of modernisation and development. Working conditions improved considerably

BLF owned 1522 acres of land, 89 lime kilns (including 2 Hoffmans), 21 large stone crushers and 3 collieries. They produced 360,000 tons limestone and 280,000 tons lime per year and dominated the industry in Derbyshire. Between 1895 and 1915 a further nine quarries were either started or bought and a limekiln building program started

Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (I.C.I.)

By 1918 Brunner Mond's dependence on the limestone from BLF was so great that they bought a controlling interest in the firm. This was converted to total ownership in 1926 and all their businesses were merged to form I.C.I.

By this time the quarries of BLF were supplying 750,000 tones of stone per year to Northwich.

The first few decades of the 20th century saw a drive for efficiency improvements and none was to have such a large effect on the company as the identification of the Tunstead site just outside Buxton in 1921.

Development of the quarry at Tunstead started in 1929 with the excavation of three cuttings in the valley side for access to the planned works. These were completed in 1932 and in 1935 the first three Patent Lime Kilns were commissioned, fed by stone from the now developing quarry.

At the same time the existing quarry at Hindlow was being expanded with the start up of seven new kilns in 1930/31 the design of these being done by the BLF engineering section after experiments on existing kilns at one of the smaller Buxton operations.

By this time I.C.I. was the largest employer in the area with over 1,900 employees. An early "Safety Drive" started in 1933 with the introduction of hard hats for production workers. The I.C.I. Workers Pension Fund was started in 1937.

As production at Tunstead increased the smaller, less efficient quarries were closed down or switched to stone production only. A new fleet of rail hopper wagons had arrived and the first trainload of stone from the new loading system left Tunstead for Northwich in 1938

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Second World War

By 1939 the developments of the previous decades had ensured that the Lime Division of I.C.I. would be able to cope with the forecasted demands. A well trained Air Raid Precaution team had been set up in 1938 and some of the labour force was released into the armed forces. These were replaced by local women in some of the production units and support services.

Development was scaled down as the very large fabrication facilities at Buxton were turned over to war production. The PIAT anti tank weapon and the Blacker Bombard mortar were produced in large numbers, the Bombard being used extensively in the defence of Moscow.

Many of the old kilns the company operated were closed down as it proved impossible to get them to conform to the blackout regulations, although two kilns at Buxton Central Quarry were fitted with closed tops which also had the effect of increasing the production rate.

Fund raising for the war effort was intensive with the 'Girls of the Hydrating Plant' raising enough money to donate two rescue dinghies to the R.A.F.

Mechanisation

By the end of the war loading of stone at the quarry face was still done by hand into small rail wagons that could hold almost 2 tons. Various trials were run with steam shovels but in1945 a start was made to mechanise and electric shovels loading into side tipping wagons were introduced. This system was ready for the commissioning of the huge 60" gyratory crusher imported from the U.S.A. in 1949.

By this time two hydrating plants had been commissioned with the entire product being manually bagged. In 1950 the first trials were conducted on loading Limbux into bulk tankers for delivery to industrial customers.

Experience gained in mechanisation at Tunstead lead to hand loading being phased out at Hindlow by 1958.

Lime Kilns

Following the installation of the first 6 Patent Kilns in the 30s two more were added in 1960s. All these kilns were designed with a patented firing system developed and designed by the Lime Division Engineering Department. This system dramatically improved both efficiency and lime quality of these shaft type kilns. The firing system is still in use and being further developed today.

In order to supply the very high lime purity requirements of the stainless steel industry two rotary kilns were installed in the mid 50s. These kilns were subsequently converted to dual coal or gas firing and 50 years on are still supplying this demanding requirement.

In the later part of the 1960s three Calcimatic kilns joined the ever increasing range of lime kilns available to us. In the 1970s these kilns along with the eight shaft kilns were converted to natural gas firing in order to improve their environmental performance. The Calcimatic kilns were subsequently demolished in the late 1980s when increasing energy costs rendered them uneconomic.

At Hindlow the problem was solved by replacing the shaft kilns there with two modern Maerz Kilns in 1980. These gas fired kilns not only improved the environmental performance of the site but were also much more thermally efficient and easier to control, producing a high reactivity
lime unavailable elsewhere in the UK.

As markets for lime started to change in the 1960s the first of our Ground Lime Plants was installed at Hindlow, quickly followed by a second, larger one. A third was commissioned in 1988 and a fourth was added at Tunstead in 1991.

1997 saw the construction of the Kalic milk of lime plant, the only one in the UK.

Buxton Lime's Later Years

By the late 1980s the lime business was no longer regarded as core business by ICI as it started the change from a bulk to a specialty chemicals producer.

In 1992 the Tunstead and Hindlow operations were bought by Anglo American as part of its strategy to become a worldwide natural resources group. Subsequently Anglo acquired the Tilcon business in 1995 and Tarmac in 2000. Buxton Lime now operates as part of the Tarmac Group.