I often mention the paths around the quarry – well here it is. Many people will probably consider that living close to a granite quarry is not necessarily a good thing, but we love it. The house does rattle a bit a few times a week, when the quarry blasts, enough to make visitors jump, but since a friend of many years lives up the Lane, we knew about this before we moved in. Croft Hill, between us and the quarry, protects us from all other noise, and most of the dust.
Quarrying companies pay a tax for each tonne of stone excavated, which is used to manage the environment around the quarry, and as a result we have loads of managed wildlife areas and accessible footpaths within a minute or two of our front door. We turn one way for a walk on quarry land, and the other way for walk around the network of public footpaths across the fields behind our home, perfect for walking the dogs. We live between two villages (each with a pub!), and apart from a few hundred yards to cross a bridge, it is possible to walk between the two without being alongside a road.
