North Cliff Quarry alsoknown as Ladies Valley.
Limestone has been quarried in the Conisbrough area and used for building for many centuries.
The Castle and Church are the oldest obvious buildings in Conisbrough,but most of the old village is composed of limestone cottages, farms and retaining walls.
The use for which the product of North Cliff Quarry was put would be burnt lime for agricultural purposes.
Some would no doubt be used in the nearby Providence Glassworks, but most would be used for mortar and plaster in the huge building project undertaking for the Denaby Main Colliery housing scheme in 1868.
Little or no limestone would at the time be used in the local iron and steelworks. The discovery of Gilchrist and Thomas basic process of steelmaking did not take place until 1878. The correct name of the quarry is North Cliff Quarry is referred to on the 1841 map.
We had many conflicting stories about the Tramway which led from the quarry incline to the bottom on Doncaster Road were the limekiln´s were. The descriptions of the kilns appear to be correct. There are many accounts of limekiln´s and lime burning, the open beehive kilns were the ones most often used and indeed were used for nearly 200 years in the area. The kilns were usually built in pairs, but sometime in larger groups. They were constructed by digging a hole in the ground in the form of an inverted cone about 20 feet in diameter. This hole was lined with limestone blocks or bricks, which soon became fused in a solid mass.
At the top of the tramway were winches that were turned by hand with two single tracks. Wooden wheeled mine carts were pulled up and lowered down the incline in tubs to the limekiln´s.
An item appears in John Battie’s accounts for 1758 – 10,500 bricks for the building of three lime kilns £5. 5. 0d. The firing chamber and the withdrawing arch was built of brick stone for the retaining walls and for making lime for mortar, was obtained from the quarry.
The kiln was filled with alternate layers of coal and stone and the top of the kiln it was rounded off and capped with smudge, or fine coal, giving it the beehive look. Brushwood from neighbouring cliffs and woods was used to start the kiln and the fire was kept up for about three days and nights.
How the quarry became known as ladies valley ?
The local name, Ladies Valley, is attributed to facts that a women hanged herself there.
Girls from the local Sunday School picnicked there.
A place where Ladies would meet their clients during the depression years.
Because more people could remember it as Ladies Valley, the facts about the Territorial Army using it for a shooting range were more consistent
The profits that were made in the Club House in the quarry, whether it be engine house or office, helped to buy new premises on Doncaster Road which was the old Drill Hall and became the Fairway Super Market on Doncaster Road.
Ladies Valley was also used as a illegal gambling area; most of the men came from Conisbrough and Denaby. I can remember that you would place your bet and one man would flick up two pennies coins if two heads came up you were a winner! Men were posted on each corner of the valley as lookouts for police. They would raid it quite regular and it was like a stampede when the police came. This illegal gambling was faded out in the late 50’s.
Complied by Keith Butcher