Limestone Quarry, Derbyshire

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

The earliest picture of quarrying in Derbyshire?

In February the museum bought a small eighteenth-century watercolour from Chiswick Auctions in London. We don’t know who painted it or when, and its title, ‘Limestone Quarry, Derbyshire’ is somewhat ambiguous.

It is however, the earliest picture of limestone quarrying that the museum owns. It is perhaps the earliest picture of Derbyshire quarrying in existence.

Limestone quarry, Derbyshire. Unknown artist, late 1700s

Limestone quarrying was, and still is, an important industry for Derbyshire and the landscape is littered with the remains of old quarries. Although ubiquitous across the county, quarries very rarely make it into early topographical views of the area. The watercolour shows quarry workers, complete with pick-axes, chiselling away at the cliff face on the right hand side. In the centre, smoke can be seen billowing from a small lime kiln.

Detail from Limestone Quarry, Derbyshire

In the eighteenth-century artists had…

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An Archival Mystery

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Buxton Museum and Art Gallery reopens on Tuesday 18 May 2021. Book your Free Visit Now!

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

After months of closure, Derbyshire County Council’s Buxton Museum and Art Gallery will re-open to visitors on Tuesday 18 May, 2021. You can find out about visiting and pre-book admission tickets by going to www.derbyshire.gov.uk/buxtonmuseum. Admission is free.

The annual Derbyshire Open Art exhibition has been postponed but the museum is delighted to show Across Time – A Retrospective, the work of Brian Nolan (1931-2019). Brian’s beautiful picture Kestrel at Kinder painted in the landscape towards the end of his painting career because of failing eyesight, won the Derbyshire Open Art Exhibition trophy in 2004. For more than 40 years, Brian was a familiar figure in the Dark Peak, setting out from his home in Hayfield to paint out of doors, sheltering under trees and in barns and capturing the majesty of the Dark Peak landscape in all weathers. The exhibition runs until 5 September.

In complete contrast…

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The Duke of Edinburgh in Derbyshire

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