Photograph: Windmill, Kerridge, late 19th century
In the second half of the nineteenth century, large firms operated the quarries on the western side of Kerridge, though not as flamboyantly as Clayton. For instance, Wettons, a Rainow firm, had quarries on Kerridge, and on Billinge, Windyway, Teggs Nose, and in Bollington. They also had two sawmills on Grimshaw Lane in Bollington. Such firms introduced mechanisation in the form of stone crushers, frame saw and planing machines and compressed air hammer drills, together with steam cranes and the use of explosives. Clayton also built the wide straight track which leads from Endon House up to Windmill Lane at the entrance to his Windmill Quarry. The windmill itself, which stood between the quarry entrance and Five Ashes, was apparently transported from Macclesfield Common in 1834. It seems likely that this would be Clayton’s work. Near the entrance to the third of his Endon quarries, Turret Quarry, Clayton built a castellated row of cottages, known as Turret Cottages. Castellation is also seen on the ventilation chimney which he built on Windmill Lane in preparation for extended coal mining. Clayton built Endon House, close to the tramway, for his manager, and the imposing Endon Hall for himself, presumably. At the Hall, he entertained 250 workmen to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. “Each guest had an entire plum pudding to himself, and roast beef and ale were dispensed on an equally generous scale”. However Clayton does not seem to have lived at the Hall during most of the 1840s, and in 1850 he died. His quarries on Kerridge were leased to, and ultimately owned by, his former manager, Williamson.
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KRIV
I Countryside and Heritage Project
The coal mines experienced no such development. Faulting limited their potential: the ‘Red Rock Fault’, for instance cuts off expansion westwards at roughly the line of the Macclesfield Canal. The coal lacked the quality advantage of the Kerridge stone. The canal, and then the railways (arriving in Macclesfield from the north in 1845 and from the south in 1848, and in Bollington in 1870) brought in higher quality coal cheaply. Sporadic mining seems to have continued into the early 20th century, at least on the Rainow side. By the 20th century the cheapness of other building materials meant that the use of Kerridge stone declined. For instance, when Bollington Urban District Council built 56 council houses off Grimshaw Lane in 1921-2, Kerridge stone was used; when the housing scheme was extended after the second world war, the houses were rendered brick. The operation of the quarries had become more sporadic by the late 19th century. By the late 1940s they were almost entirely deserted. From the late 20th century there has been some revival, and Kerridge stone is being sent far afield again.