"This will help solve a difficult, long-term controversy" - new owners at Masson Lees Quarry, Derbyshire

Dringo Creigiau
28 Chw
3 min read

The new owners of Masson Lees Quarry, Derbyshire, hope to resolve the long-term controversy over parking issues, and many more improvements, thanks to funding from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust.

The BMC are delighted to announce that new funding from our Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) Mend Our Mountains campaign has been granted for footpath repair, crag safety and access work at Masson Lees Quarry, above Matlock. The site has been purchased by outdoorsy, conservation-keen father and son team Nick and Sam Lister, who have exciting plans for this secluded, limestone quarry, popular with BMC members for its plethora of bolted sport climbing routes and dry tooling lines.

Provisional plans include:

  • Levelling a section of grassland near the entrance and placing a sustainable gravel surface down to establish a car park for 10 cars
  • Using local stone or materials to build a ramp or 3m of steps down to the base of the quarry and adding a rope handrail
  • Loose rock clearance at the top of five climbing walls (Wake up Wall, Red Wall, Overhanging Wall, Black Wall and White Wall)
  • Clearing defined, easy-access paths to the Black and White Walls by clearing overgrowth and loose rubble
  • Update the signage to correct the current spelling mistakes and add additional information about safe practices when climbing in a quarry
Masson Lees Quarry has been bought by father and son team Nick and Sam Lister who will protect the landscape

BMC Access & Conservation Officer, Jon Fullwood, says, "I'm really pleased about this ACT funding because the work directly benefits BMC members and will help solve a difficult, long-term controversy - a parking problem that has existed for a long time and was proving hard to fix."

"Access to Masson Lees Quarry is via a steep back road with very limited parking. For years, local residents and farmers have been very angry about climbers parking in passing spaces on such a steep hill, and parking opposite the entrance, which makes it difficult to get large farm vehicles in and out. This conflict has escalated to cars being damaged and verbal confrontations."

"The car park in particular reduces the chance that climbers will lose access to this crag by removing the most significant access problem, and means that the new owners are more likely to succeed and not resell.

"I've met the new owners, Sam and Nick Lister, and they are a really genuine couple of guys that will create a fantastic community space that everyone will enjoy using, and not just climbers - there's also a public footpath, the end point of a cave through trip, and the site is an important dry tooling venue.

"The Listers are also very interested in conservation and rewilding, which is great as I spotted five species of orchids on my last site visit. Like most revegetated quarries in the area there are also wild flower meadows.

"One of the other key points to mention is that there are a lot of quarries in the Matlock area that have been historically used for climbing under increasing pressure to be used for building houses, due to their location just outside the Peak District National Park. Masson Lees was not itself under threat from this, but with other quarries in the area closing down, it's good to have this one protected.

"Masson Lees is also one of the southernmost sport climbing venues in this area, so having good access for those in the midlands and south of England means a reduction in carbon footprint. There is never going to be a public transport option for this crag, so the most sensible solution is to lift share."

The car park has not been made yet so please delay your trip until we have announced that it is ready. Parking is extremely limited at the site and we do not wish to block any passing places or track entries to large farm machinery, so please lift-share, and if there is no useable space, please park further away and walk in. Thank you very much for observing these guidelines until further notice, updates and more information can be found on the Regional Access Database (RAD)

Thanks to BMC ACT funding, work has already begun at Masson Lees quarry to create a safer, more accessible path

New owner Sam Lister says, "The second we saw Masson Lees Quarry my dad and I both absolutely fell in love. I've done quite a bit of climbing in the past, and we're very into the land itself. We're both outdoorsy and my dad used to take us on camping trips when we were younger.

"The quarry has taken over our lives and it's a project which will outlive us which feels amazing to be a part of. At the moment we are doing a lot of maintenance work, clearing the site and making it more user-friendly. We're going to see where it goes. We've been talking to the Woodland Trust and we're going to be planting a forest there, so we may well need some BMC volunteers for that.

"The funding from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust will allow us to sort out the path down into the quarry. It has been a bit of a scramble to get down there and we have heard of a couple of people falling down in that area so we want to make it a bit safer. We will create a ramp to make it completely accessible.

"We also want to build a car park there to sort out past parking issues. We aim to have spaces for 10 cars, potentially more. It's very much up to what planning permission comes back with, but we hope to get that done by this summer.

"We can see the potential of the land and how well it has been managed by Neil Blake and Adam Mccudden who have bolted most of the quarry walls - it has just over 150 climbing routes and 50 dry tooling routes. Neil is an ex-GB ice climber and had set up a dry tooling festival, Masson Fest, a couple of years back and we are talking to him about setting that up again.

"My day job is as a support worker in a children's home in Nottingham. I have been working in mental health for a while, in a long term residential children's home and as an assistant psychologist, and to me it seemed that the kids I was working with gained a lot more from getting outdoors than sitting inside talking about their feelings. I am interested in the potential to set up therapeutic adventure therapy retreats for children at the quarry."

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