Female quarry workers set in stone

The Institute of Quarrying has enabled a new statue that tips its hat to female quarry workers to be built near the centre of the United Kingdom.
Local newspaper the Buxton Advertiser initiated the campaign to build the statue of a female quarry worker next to “Jack the Lime Worker” in Grin Low Woods, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK.
Longcliffe Quarries managing director Viv Russell, also from the Institute of Quarrying’s (IQ) Derbyshire branch, told Agg-Net the Institute would be donating £500 to help reach the £4000 target.
“The Institute of Quarrying is delighted to be backing a campaign which brings awareness to the contribution that quarrying and the wider mineral products industry makes every day to the way we live, work and travel,” Russell said.
“It is also really important for us to acknowledge the women in the industry both past and present; women are an integral part of the industry and it’s right that they are equally recognised.”
The campaign has been long discussed but the Advertiser’s initiative has finally gotten it off the ground with much needed funds.
Buxton Advertiser editor Louise Cooper said it wouldn’t have been possible without the IQ.
“Thank you to the Institute of Quarrying for this generous donation for our campaign,” Cooper told Agg-Net. “Quarrying continues to be a really important industry in the High Peak, so to have the IQ involved in the campaign is fantastic.
“We’re really grateful to have had the support of local groups, local businesses and local residents for this fundraiser, which we believe is so important as a way of celebrating the history of our town and the surrounding area.”
IQ has supported the industry in many ways for over a century, with its first female quarry worker coming on board in 1925.

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