Dartmoor granite quarry ‘would be greener than importing stone’
A leading expert on Dartmoor says quarrying granite inside the National Park would be more environmentally friendly than importing the stone.
Dr Tom Greeves says extracting the stone from within the protected area for use in Dartmoor is a greener option than bringing the material from the other side of the world.
“My view is that we need wise and sustainable use of Dartmoor’s resources,” said the cultural environmentalist who is chairman of the Dartmoor Society.
“Granite is imported from as far as Portugal and China. Is it ecologically and environmentally sound to bring it in thousands of miles from the other side of the world?”
The last large-scale granite quarry on the moor, at Merrivale on the west of the moor closed in 1997. There is a smallscale operation at Blackenstone, near Moretonhampstead.
“Many people would be astonished to realise that there is no working granite quarry on Dartmoor, considering the significance of granite use on Dartmoor for millennia,” said Dr Greeves.
“It has been used for wonderful churches, farms and other buildings, and they all need a certain amount care and repair.
“I am a great believer in using resources from our own place, rather than importing them from the other side of the world, where we do not know if they are being extracted using ecologically and environmentally sound principles.”
Merrivale had employed 12 men and had “no great significant impact”, he said. “It was not expanding or creating vast new holes.” Dr Greeves said that reopening a granite quarry within the moor would be likely to face opposition with quarrying within the National Park seen by many as “an anathema”.
There are currently two large-scale stone quarries on
‘It is astonishing there is no granite quarry on Dartmoor’
Dr Tom Greeves
Dartmoor. Linhay Hill Quarry, Ashburton, employees about 230 people and produces limestone and concrete. The much smaller Yennadon Quarry, at Dousland, is worked for metamorphic stone.
Last year Yennadon was given permission to extend by about 50%, despite nearly 100 objections about noise, dust and the effect on the ecology of the area.
Dartmoor National Park Authority gave the go-ahead, saying the environment would be damaged but the overall benefits were greater as demand for the high-quality hornfels slate for conservation work could not be met by other quarries, 27 jobs depended on the operation and new limits on lorry movements and annual production were an improvement.
Phil Hutt, director of Dartmoor Preservation Association, said: “We understand the green argument about the benefits of locally sourced materials and also support the need for a thriving local economy on Dartmoor.”
The association was not “implacably opposed” to stone quarrying and its stance depended on factors such as the impact on local communities and the environment, the strain on roads and whether other sources were available.
Richard Crocker managing director of Lantoom, which op- erates a granite quarry on Caradon Hill, Bodmin Moor, said it was “ludicrous” to suggest extracting the stone from a protected space such as Dartmoor when there was an alternative source. Stone from Caradon could “very closely match” Dartmoor granite. There were also sources of reclaimed granite, he said.
Dr Greeves will chair a Dartmoor Society debate, Are We Using Dartmoor’s Stone Resources Wisely?, on at Meldon Village Hall, near Okehampton.
Speakers include representatives from the operators of the Linhay and Yennadon quarries. To book a place, go to dartmoorsociety.com/events