Milltown Quarry

The 10th of May, 2017 found me exploring Milltown Quarry near Ashover. It lies between Gregory Mine a half mile to the west and Fallgate Quarry a quarter of a mile to the north east.  Although not a mine; it has been the source of some very interesting mineral discoveries in the past, as has Fallgate Quarry too.  This is due to the quarrying process exposing mineral veins or rakes.

Stars Wood Mine was located just to the side of the Milltown Quarry and exploited some of the same minerals.

The quarry is divided into two parts, the old quarry and the more recent quarry.  The older quarry was the source of the interesting mineral discoveries back in the 1980s.  However, the floor of the quarry has since been filled with 2m of industrial Fluorspar slurry, burying the main exposed rake where the discoveries were made. Extreme caution should be exercised when exploring here as most of the quarry floor area has been fenced off with Danger: Quicksand warning signs.

There are not many places to park in this area but I managed to find a convenient parking place opposite the Miner Arms Inn's car park where there is space for two vehicles.  It's within easy walking distance of the quarry.

VILLAGE SIGN WITH ITS OWN FLOWER BOX
HOW QUINTESSENTIALLY ENGLISH

THE RIVER AMBER RUNS ALONG SIDE THE ROAD  HEADING NORTH OUT OF MILLTOWN

THE TRACK LEADING TO THE QUARRY

MILLTOWN QUARRY

VIEW OF THE WESTERN FACE OF THE QUARRY

THE NORTH FACE OF THE OLD QUARRY
VERY MUCH OVERGROWN NOW

COWSLIP (PRIMULA VERIS)  GROWING WILD IN THE QUARRY

Background

Limestone appears to have been quarried here from the 1880s and Flourspar and Calcite were also commercially extracted.  Star Woods Mine was located just south of the old quarry and both used the Ashover Light Railway to transport material down to Clay Cross.  The mine extracted Galena, Fluorspar and Calcite.

The quarry was worked up until 1936 and apart from a brief working life during the war years has remained closed ever since.  A new quarry was started up to the west of the old one and was in use up until 2003.

The mineral veins exposed by the quarrying contained, I believe, mainly Fluorspar and Calcite with smaller quantities of the Lead ore Galena.  However, in the 1980's a one meter length of the Blackwells Vein exposed on the quarry floor produced an extraordinary variety of unusual minerals which are detailed on this mindat page.

Access to this vein is now impossible as the quarry was used as an industrial dumping ground for Fluorspar slurry in the 1990s to a depth of 2 meters.


Mineralogy

The quarry predominantly contains examples of Fluorspar and Calcite with some Galena present. Quartz and Baryte are also present in smaller quantities.  Some fine specimens of Fluorspar have been found in the past.  The more exotic minerals found in the 1980s appear to have been confined to that specific section of the Blackwell vein and as such it's unlikely they will be found elsewhere on the site.


Minerals found

The site proved very interesting with evidence of large scale mineralisation around a major rake passing through the quarry which has been extensively worked in the past as shown in the following photo:

A WELL WORKED MINERAL VEIN 

There is evidence of whole rock faces along faulted planes covered with Fluorspar and/or Calcite crystals as shown in the next series of photos:

PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE OF THIS ROCK FACE IS
COVERED IN FLUORSPAR CRYSTALS

A CLOSE UP SHOWING THE FLUORSPAR CUBES

The face tangentially to this buttress is covered in dog tooth Calcite crystals as shown below:

CALCITE CRYSTALS

It was not possible to take samples of either of these sets of crystals without risking shattering them so I left them as I found them.


However, with a bit of searching there seemed to be plenty of examples lying around on the ground and the series of photos below document those I found:

LARGE FLUORSPAR CUBES WITH INCLUSIONS

MORE MILKY COLOURED ONES

A MORE ATTRACTIVE COLOUR

QUARTZ FILLED NODULE

THIN VEIN OF GALENA IN FLUORPSAR

FLUORSPAR WITH BARYTE AND QUARTZ CRYSTALS

Some useful references

Some info on the quarry on the aditnow site: Milltown Limestone Quarry

The mindat entry and mineral list: Milltown Quarry