Showcase 2007

This year’s Quarry Products Association Showcase event, which took place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on 17 May, celebrated 10 successful years of the QPA. A record audience attended the annual event to look back at some of the major leaps forward for the Association, as well as concentrating on the future and the significant challenges that lie ahead.

As always, the Showcase rewarded excellence in quarry restoration and after-use in the form of the QPA’s annual Restoration Awards, with TV news presenter Fiona Bruce once again hosting the event.

The Association also welcomed special guest speakers Barry Gardiner MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs; and Bernard Jenkin, MP for north Essex. The former was on hand to present the premier quarry restoration prize, the Cooper Heyman Cup, while Mr Jenkin took part in a live interview with QPA director general Simon van der Byl, tackling questions on sustainable development.

This year an unprecedented 13 high-quality submissions were received by the QPA, all looking to secure the Cooper Heyman Cup. Another major award for outstanding restoration work, the Chairman’s Trophy, was presented by QPA chairman Lynda Thompson, who said: ‘It stands out for me that all the companies involved in our Restoration Awards have very clearly gone that extra mile beyond what was agreed in their planning permissions. I congratulate all of our entries for the outstanding restoration work that has taken place across the country.’

Details of all of this year’s award-winning restoration schemes are presented below.

Cooper Heyman Cup Forfar Quarry, Angus

[img_assist|nid=12322|title=Forfar Quarry|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=287|height=200]Since decommissioning the site in 2000, Bardon Aggregates have been working in partnership with the local Murton Wildlife Trust and the landowners to design and create a community education facility and nature reserve for enjoyment by visitors of all ages.

Located a few miles east of Forfar, Scotland, Forfar Quarry consists of two areas, Murton and Fledmyre, both of which have been restored to the highest standard and today attract large numbers of visitors, birds and animals.

Restoration commenced with the provision of roadside planting on bunds with trees such as rowan, birch, hawthorn and wild apple to provide habitats for birds in the winter. The area has also been capped and sown with barley, and under-planted with clover-rich grass for insects and bees.

The sand and gravel quarry comprises five lakes and many of the lake edges have been left open to encourage wading birds, while a number of geese, redshanks, ducks, coots and sand martins nest in and around the area. The unique artificial nesting facilities for sand martins, designed and constructed at Murton, are recognized throughout the UK as a leading innovation in nesting provision for these vulnerable birds.

Further restoration work is being planned, which includes expanding the use of the nature reserve as an education resource, and creating an interactive community farm for recreation, education and as a centre for community welfare improvement.

Chairman’s Trophy Langford Lakes Nature Reserve, Wiltshire

Set in the picturesque Wylye Valley, nine miles west of Salisbury, Langford Lakes is one of the UK’s best examples of long-term gravel workings that have successfully made the transition to become a stunning nature reserve.

Since purchasing the site in 2001, the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust has built on the good restoration work achieved previously to establish what has become its flagship reserve. Langford Lakes is an important refuge for wetland birds, a centre of excellence for environmental education, a popular destination for anglers and a valued venue for the local community.

As the last of three operators, Wiltshire-based Hills Group satisfied the planning conditions before the site became a commercial fishery in 1984, and have provided a total of £2 million of funding since 1990, of which £253,000 has been devoted to the development of Langford Lakes.

The site has attracted an estimated 25,000 visitors to date, while the reserve’s educational programme has drawn praise from teachers with visits from around 60 schools, involving as many as 4,000 children.

Award winners Austerfield Quarry, Yorkshire

[img_assist|nid=12323|title=Austerfield Quarry|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=250|height=200]Austerfield Quarry is situated approximately 1km north of Bawtry in South Yorkshire. The 29ha restored site, known as The Mosaic Reserve, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its diverse range of flora and fauna; of particular interest is the range of lichens, mosses and liverworts.

Hanson have developed a strong working relationship with The Mosaic Trust for the benefit of the environment, creating ponds and significantly improving the landform for wildlife. The company have also provided educational programmes and teaching aids, linked closely to both the quarrying industry and the national curriculum.

The Mosaic Reserve is being progressively restored with the aim of further protecting and enhancing the regenerating quarry as a nature reserve with public access. The site has already been used by various groups, including the adjacent Austerfield Study Centre, Yorkshire Wildlife groups, Scouts, Brownies and the many volunteers who come together for individual activities on site.

Dykefarm Quarry, Dumfries and Galloway

The restoration of Dykefarm Quarry has been carried out with enthusiastic support from the local community, which has been involved in all aspects of the site’s reinstatement. The aim for Patersons of Greenoakhill Ltd and the Moffat & District Community Initiative was to create agricultural grassland and a community nature reserve.

Work involved the phased extraction of sand and gravel reserves from the site, which has progressively reduced the impact of the mineral workings on the landscape and provided an opportunity for landscape and ecological enhancement of the site and its immediate environs.

Ellingham Hall, Norfolk

CEMEX, in conjunction with the owners of Ellingham Hall, have designed a mineral extraction/restoration programme to complement and further enhance the landscape and ecology of the site. A number of factors had threatened the continued preservation of parkland at Ellingham Hall, ranging from change of ownership to lack of maintenance and competing land uses.

This prompted the need for improvement and preservation of the site’s existing parkland, ensuring its ecological and landscape value is maintained. One of the key elements of the restoration scheme has been the creation of a lake, which has made a significant contribution to biodiversity by providing a number of habitats.

Finningley Quarry, Yorkshire

The continuing restoration of Finningley Quarry, near Robin Hood Airport, is making a vital contribution to the economic well-being of the local area through the creation of extensive agricultural land and new habitats. The Lafarge Aggregates quarry lies within a topographically flat agricultural landscape where mineral extraction has been carried out over 430ha. Each year the quarry produces around 400,000 tonnes of aggregates.

Restoration features of special interest include new hedges, woodland copses, drainage sumps, acid grassland, rare lichen-bryophyte communities and oak-birch woodland. Another interesting feature is the innovative inversion of the soil profile (undertaken during soil replacement), which has improved the agricultural quality of the land by removing inherent drainage problems caused by the massive clay subsoil.

Funky Footprints, Middlesex

[img_assist|nid=12327|title=Funky Footprints|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=259|height=200]Located on the western boundary of Shepperton, this nature conservation area, developed and restored by a public private partnership (PPP) between Tarmac and Surrey County Council, was formerly a remote school playing field.

Today the site comprises a landscaped lake with islands, areas of shallow water, marshland and linking water channels; extensive woodland and shrub planting; grassland/wildflower areas; and pond dipping platforms and boardwalks.

The nature reserve area is a rare habitat in the region and a number of initiatives have been undertaken to foster biodiversity and promote habitat creation, including: insect log piles; bat, bird and hedgehog boxes; bumblebee nets; bare-ground clearance for solitary bees and wasps; and bird over-wintering nests in hedgerows.

Since restoration of the area was completed in 2002 (it is now approaching the end of its five-year aftercare scheme), the number of bird species using the site has increased from around 30 to 89.

Hope Limestone Quarry, Derbyshire

Lafarge Cement’s Hope Works is located between the villages of Hope, Castleton, Brough and Bradwell in a picturesque and much-visited part of the Peak District. The area has a long association with mineral extraction and limestone quarrying, providing Hope Works with the capacity to produce up to 1.3 million tonnes of cement a year.

Lafarge’s restoration work involved the creation of a prominent slope between the cement works and the limestone quarry, as part of a £8 million crushing system project and the construction of a new reduced-gradient access road.

Key elements of the restoration plan – designed by landscape architects David Jarvis Associates – included tipping topsoil from the stripped area on to the top of the slope, which was then graded down by a low-ground-pressure dozer. The seeding of the bank used a local grass seed mix, which was hand sown. In addition, around
8,000 trees were planted at the site, of which 6,000 are on the bank and 2,000 form a hanging woodland above Hadfields Quarry.

Elsewhere, a nature reserve for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has been built covering Hadfields Quarry, and a viewing platform for educational visits to the quarry and works has been installed.

Linghurst Lakes, Nottinghamshire

Linghurst Lakes, situated 5km north of Retford, underwent five years of aftercare, following the completion of extraction and subsequent restoration of the site in 1997. Sand and gravel had been extracted in the vicinity since the mid-1940s, firstly by North Notts Gravel Co., then the Hoveringham Group of Companies and finally by Tarmac when they bought the 30ha site in 1981.

The main restoration features of the site are the man-made lakes, which are bordered by three plantations, two of which comprise ancient woodland. The area’s natural habitats have been enhanced to encourage public access and visits. Tarmac passed ownership of the land to Lound Parish Council in 2004.

Manor Farm, Aust, Gloucestershire

Initial restoration work was carried out by CEMEX in 2001 and with appropriate aftercare the site has matured. In 1992 Manor Farm was identified as a potential source of cohesive fill due to its underlying geology, proximity to the Second Severn Crossing (SSC) and planning potential. As a result, the site supplied cohesive fill to the building of SSC during 1995.

Since then, Manor Farm has been transformed into an area of agriculture and nature conservation. The site also promotes geodiversity by retaining the Rhaetian Bone Bed, which contains abundant fossil vertebrate material.

Roxwell Quarry, Essex

[img_assist|nid=12324|title=Roxwell Quarry|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=266|height=200]This site was worked for sand and gravel during the 1980s and subsequently filled with household waste from the Chelmsford district during the 1990s. Since then much of the restoration work carried out by Lafarge Aggregates at Roxwell Quarry has been through a major five-year agricultural aftercare programme.

In addition, a landfill gas extraction system has been installed, with the gas being transported via pipeline to an electricity generating plant, which in turn feeds into the National Grid.

Tyrham Hall, Yorkshire

This 100ha site (formerly owned by Tarmac and now by Natural England) sits on the edge of the Thorne and Hatfield moors, which form part of one of the largest lowland raised bogs in Britain, covering over 3,000ha.

The aim of the restoration scheme, carried out in a number of phases, was to complement and enhance the adjacent Hatfield Moor, and create habitats consisting of shallow lakes, low-lying wetland areas and margins, peat bogs, drier woodland, grassland and heath.

As well as the various flora that exist in each of these habitats, fauna of all types thrive on the site ranging from aquatic species and adders to roe deer, insects and birds, including the nightjar.

Warren Heath, Hampshire

In partnership with the Forestry Commission, CEMEX have restored around 45ha of commercial woodland at Warren Heath to a ‘ridge and furrow’ formation with replanting being carried out by the Commission.

Since the late 1970s, CEMEX and the Forestry Commission have been developing ever-improving specifications for the commercial reafforestation of sites following mineral extraction. In the last decade alone, this has led to the introduction of the ridge and furrow system to lessen compaction, encourage root spread and facilitate drainage, all with the aim of maximizing tree growth.

Reafforestation and restoration work at the site has helped create ephemeral ponds, swathes of heather and bare grounds suitable for a wide range of insects and reptiles.