In the background – the raw material. In the foreground – the final product. On a nice day I love this path around the quarry edge, with this view on one side, and a view for miles across the south Leicestershire countryside on the other. The cliff face is the side of Croft Hill, and you can see the quarry company, who own the Hill, would not have to do much excavation to expose the granite. In fact all they would need to do is mow the grass. A few years ago the company who owned the quarry at the time submitted a planning application to excavate the Hill, but there was such a public outcry that the application was withdrawn. The current quarry company encourages people to walk up on the Hill, and around the quarry, a good sign I think, and for the foreseeable future blasting will be limited to the other quarry faces. The piles in the foreground is how the granite ends up after being blasted into car sized chunks, and then crushed in stages into pieces just a few millimetres across. Most of these pieces will be coated in tar, and used for surfacing roads.
