THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

'Watching butterflies at Hoe Grange is a fantastic and rewarding experience'

Derbyshire is a mineral-rich county that has been exploited for thousands of years by the hand, axe and explosives of man. Lead, flourspar, Blue John and limestone have all been and – particularly in the case of limestone and flourspar – still are worked to provide us with the raw resources that drive our hungry, modern world forward.

Limestone was first quarried by the Romans, who realised its tremendous value for both building stone and lime production. Quarrying continued in a spasmodic fashion across the county until the beginning of the 19th century when coal became far more available and the use of gunpowder allowed for blasting on a larger scale. Limestone was then used both as building stone and to produce lime to satisfy the growing demands of agriculture.

Today Derbyshire is still the UK’s most important limestone producer and its uses, which are numerous and include road building, cement, plastics, rubber, steelmaking, glass manufacture, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, really justify its designation as a multi-purpose resource.

However, there is a price to pay for mineral extraction. The most obvious is the huge scars on the landscape that result from working and workedout quarries. It is easy to rail against these, however, we must remember that not only do they boost the local economy and provide much needed employment, often in areas where it is in short supply, but that also, of course, we all use limestone regularly in our daily lives, even if we are often not fully aware of it.