Tonka trucks

You may recall me mentioning earlier this year that I was planning a camera club outing to The Coldstones Cut artwork and the adjacent Toft Gate lime kiln remains. Well, it happened... but sadly for some reason the old lime kiln was securely padlocked and the area inaccessible. I had taken photos there before (see HERE) but it was disappointing that my fellow photographers couldn't access it, as it is interesting. 

The artwork at the brow of the hill was open to explore though (see tomorrow). It overlooks the Coldstones Quarry, owned by Hanson, part of the Heidelburg Cement Group. Here they produce 600,000 tonnes of aggregate a year, for major construction projects in the UK. It is one of the highest quarries in England and its workings are almost completely hidden from view from the surrounding area, as they are burrowing down deep inside a hill. From the viewing platform at the artwork, there was a good view of the big machines and the crushing facilities. Those big yellow trucks look like Tonka Toys from this height. You can see the levels where they are working to blast and extract the rock, which then gets trucked up to the top to be crushed into aggregate in the sheds.