Coalition approach to design for minerals

Coalition of minerals design policies

Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's plan for the Hope Cement Works uses each of the four approaches to the landscape of industry: they are not mutually exclusive [Fig 6.7]. The first landscape plan was published in 1943 (Jellicoe 1979). No legislation was in force at the time but the Scott Report had been issued in 1942 and the owner of the company, an enlightened man, believed the works should receive special consideration because of their location in the heart of what is now the Peak District National Park. Jellicoe wrote that: 'It is not recommended that there should be artificial planting inside the quarry, nor that the quarry face should be altered from the vertical: for the quarry within itself is impressive'. He added that the idea of treating the quarry face like 'the outcrops in the surrounding district... would be a mistake because the quality of stone is different. Mam Tor, the "shivering mountain", is of millstone grit ... the rock form is therefore dissimilar to that of a quarry'. Jellicoe advised that the limestone quarry should be concealed from without 'to give the illusion that the form of the hill is undisturbed... the mouth of the quarry, therefore should be kept as small as possible, and the quarry itself worked fanwise from this'. The quarry is an industrial zone with no environmental control over the method of working. In 1979, after 50 years of excavation, it was entirely concealed within the mass of the hill. An older limestone quarry, opened in 1929, was conspicuous in 1943 but has been restored and is now indistinguishable from the mountainside. For the old clay quarries, which provided the other essential component of cement, Jellicoe recommended the conservation approach, because 'the first consideration is that they should be brought back to use to conform with their surroundings. A series of lakes with planted banks is suggestive of a landscape even more interesting than existed before'. Jellicoe was also very interested in the creative potential of the mineral operation. When reviewing his plan in 1979 he said that 'The limestone quarry with its firm stone carved in radiating terraces is like some giant's amphitheatre among the mountains'. It, and the new clay quarry, 'will be in existence long after the works have vanished (as long, indeed as Win Hill itself) and their ultimate use could be as astonishing in their benefit to a leisured society as are the Norfolk Broads today with their medieval origins of peat workings'. Hope Cement Works serves to make two important points about the landscape of minerals: it shows that separate policies may be required for each aspect of the operation, and that the treatment of the whole project depends upon the character of the site and the timescale of the workings. Since time is a vital factor, the various types of mineral working will, in the following sections, be classified in relation to the expected lifespan of the extraction process. It can range from six months for a surface coalï¾­mining project to a thousand years for a hard rock quarry.