Musbury Heights extends between NGR: SD 752 218 and SD 766 216 and is situated at c. 330 m O.D. The quarry can be accessed from a public footpath leading from the Grane Road and from the Rossendale Way, which also passes through the eastern portion of the site.
Historical Summary
Working life: Pre-1850 (OS 1st edn) – Post-1930 (OS 25”) (Miller 1997, 126).
Quarry firms: Hargreaves & Bolton (1876-95) (Miller 1997, 126), Grane Brick & Terracotta Co. (1895-97), Grane Brick & Stone Co. Ltd. (1897-1903), Grane Quarry Co., latterly Hodgson’s Road Contracting.
Geology: Lower Haslingden Flags.
Methods: Hillside outcropping and open pit.
Transport: Tramway with tramway incline.
Products: Road setts, kerb stones and flagstones.
Events:
1850 OS 6” 1st edn map shows ‘Sandstone Quarry (Flags)’
1876 – 1895 Owned by Hargreaves & Bolton.
1880 Scrubbing mill constructed. 1895 – 1897 Owned by Grane Brick & Terracotta Co. 1897 – 1903 Owned by Grane Brick & Stone Co. Ltd. 06.05.
1903 Sale of works and plant and two locomotives to Grane Quarry Company (Miller 1997, 126).
03.02.1906 Fatal accident to John Holland, 53, run over by a truck while shunting (Miller 1997, 126).
1930-31 Tramway closed.
Field Components Summary- This large, expansive, quarry has evidence for both hillside outcrop working and open pit working in the form of numerous, partially obscured, working faces and extraction pits. The spoil dumps associated with the workings are extensive and have been largely colonised by moorland vegetation. They are still well defined, however, and consist of a range of forms, which include conical mounds and fingers. These mounds appear to largely correspond with those plotted on the early edition OS maps. There is also a complete and extensive range of associated quarry features and structures located within the quarry. These include probable quarrymen’s and blast shelters, probable quarry manager’s offices, processing areas, loading platforms, crane platforms and bases, retaining walls, trestle bridges, a scrubbing mill complex, an extensive tramway system, with some in situ sleepers, and the remains of a gravity powered winding house, associated with an extremely well defined tramway incline.
The scrubbing mill chimney was conserved with funding from English Heritage, in 2004 reinstating the structure that was in danger of complete collapse.
