Blue John (also known as Derbyshire Spar) is a semi-precious mineral, a rare form of fluorite with bands of a purple-blue or yellowish colour. In the United Kingdom it is found only at Blue John Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern at Castleton in Derbyshire. During the 19th century, it was mined for its ornamental value, and mining continues on a small scale.
The most common explanation for the name is that it derives from the French bleu-jaune, meaning 'blue-yellow'. The story goes that Blue John was exported to France where it was used by ormolu workers during the reign of Louis XVI (1774–91). However, there is no archival record of any Blue John being exported to France, [1] : 7 and the early ormolu ornaments which use Blue John were being manufactured by Matthew Boulton of Birmingham in the 1760s.
An alternative origin of the name derives from an old miners' name for the zinc ore sphalerite, which they called "Black Jack". Thus, the unique blue stone mined in these caverns could easily have become known as "Blue John". [1] : 7
Another derivation comes from the Cornish miners who began working the Derbyshire lead mines in the 1740s. The name "Blue John" is used for several rocks in Cornwall, including fluorspars, and derives from the Cornish language word bleujenn, in Old Cornish blodon, a flower, bloom or blossom. [2]
In the United Kingdom, the blue, banded fluorite known as Blue John is found only under the triangular hill known as Treak Cliff, just outside the village of Castleton. [1] : 20 Today the veins are mined only in Blue John Cavern and the nearby Treak Cliff Cavern, although the abandoned Old Tor Mine on the north side of Winnats Pass was also, at one time, a source for the mineral. [1] : 36
The mineral veins of the Peak District were formed during the late Carboniferous and Early Permian times, when the limestones were at a depth of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi). [1] : 13 The minerals were deposited in veins by layers of crystals precipitating from hot fluids coating the walls of fractures, caves, and other cavities. [1] : 17 Petrological analysis has shown that the Blue John, like fluorite elsewhere in the Peak District, crystallised from a highly saline fluid at temperatures of 90–120 °C or perhaps a little higher. [1] : 25
Despite much investigation, the origin of the blue colour of Blue John remains uncertain. [3] Microscopic analysis has failed to find any impurities such as potassium permanganate or hydrocarbons which could produce a purple-blue colour. It is now thought that the colour may be a physical phenomenon due to crystal lattice dislocation. If the regular arrangement of atoms in the fluorite molecules are disturbed or dislocated, then this may yield the blue colour in Blue John. [1] : 27 The cause of these dislocations is unknown, but one possibility is that it is due to colloidal calcium, i.e. excess of calcium atoms needed to form fluorite. [1] : 28 Blue John can be decolourised by heating it in an oven for a few hours, a phenomenon apparently caused by the heat realigning the lattice dislocations removing the colour. Irradiating the discoloured Blue John in a nuclear reactor can bring the colour back. [1] : 29
Blue, unbanded fluorite occurs in many localities around the world. Within the UK, blue fluorspars are also found in County Durham, especially Weardale. [1] : 39 Elsewhere, blue fluorspar is known in the Ardennes region of Belgium; the Cave-in-Rock area of Illinois in the United States; [1] : 39 and at various localities in Mexico and China. [1] : 40
Blue-banded fluorite is very rare. An ornamental mineral known to the Romans as murrhine may have been a fluorspar similar to Blue John. Recently discovered deposits in China have produced fluorite with colouring and banding similar to the classic Blue John stone. [4] One source is the Deqing Fluorite Mine, in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, [1] : 40 the only source (other than in Derbyshire) that has an ornamental craft based upon it. [1] : 38 However, although this fluorite is similar to Blue John its banding is straighter and it contains colours not associated with Blue John, suggesting they are compounds and not inclusions as in Blue John.[ citation needed ]
Roman writers, such as Pliny the Elder, refer to a soft ornamental rock which they called murrhine, out of which drinking vessels were carved. [1] : 53 Pliny describes the mineral as having a "great variety of colours" with "shades of purple and white with a mixture of the two". [1] : 53 Whether this mineral was banded fluorite is uncertain, but it was apparently soft enough (like fluorite) to allow one particular man of consular rank to gnaw at the edges of his cup. [1] : 54 There is no reason to suppose the mineral came from Britain – Pliny and other writers specifically state that the mineral came from Persia. [1] : 54 It is sometimes claimed that Blue John vases were found during excavations at Pompeii, [5] but these vases are in fact made from banded amethystine quartz. [1] : 53 However, two cups have been found among Roman grave-goods near the Turkish/Syrian border, on the former Persian-Roman trade route, which were made from blue-yellow banded fluorspar presumably obtained from the Persian source mentioned by Pliny. [1] : 55 Both cups, known as the Crawford Cup and the Barber Cup, are in the British Museum. [6] [7]
It is sometimes said that Blue John of Derbyshire was discovered by the Romans. [5] However, the earliest source of this story is William Adam's 1843 book Gem of the Peak. It seems likely that Adam was attempting to add some mystique to the Derbyshire Blue John. [1] : 53 Although the Romans did mine lead in Derbyshire, there is no evidence that they encountered the Blue John veins. [1] : 52
The earliest reference to the mineral "Blue John" occurs in a letter dated 1766 noting a lease from Lady Mazarine, which states that she "let ye Blue John, Castleton". [1] : 59 The next reference occurs in a 1768 letter by the industrialist Matthew Boulton who attempted to purchase or lease the mines so that he could mine the Blue John to create decorative vases. It is known that by this date the mining of Blue John had been going on for several years. The earliest dated decorative applications of Blue John in Britain are those in use as fireplace panels. The bridal suite of the Friary Hotel in Derby has a Blue John plaque dated to around 1760. [1] : 69 About the same time, fireplaces with Blue John panels were designed by neoclassical architect and interior designer Robert Adam, and put in place at Kedleston Hall near Derby. [1] : 69
By the 19th century Blue John was being fashioned into a wide variety of ornamental items ranging from knife-handles to chalices. [1] : 73 The precise quantities mined in any given year are unknown, but 18th-century leases restricted output to 20 tons per annum. By 1892, the output is said to have been limited to 3 tons per annum. Today, production is probably around half a ton per annum, [1] : 42 and the raw Blue John produced is kept within Castleton where small articles, mainly jewellery, are worked and sold. [1] : 95 A "lost" deposit was rediscovered in Treak Cliff Cavern in 2013, [8] [9] and in 2015 a new vein, the first for 150 years, was discovered close to the tourist route in the same cavern. [10] [11]
Elsewhere, similar blue and white-yellow banded fluorite ornaments are now imported into the UK and other countries from China. [12]
Before they can be worked, the stones (having been air-dried for at least a year) are heated in an oven, then placed in a bowl of hot epoxy resin (previously, pine resin was used), and then further heated in a vacuum oven. This drives out air from minute pores in the stone, and replaces it with the resin, which binds the otherwise friable crystal structure, allowing it to be cut and polished. After resining, the stones are cut on a saw. They may be made into rough cuboids or cylinders ("rough-outs"), for turning as bowls and vases, or flat slices, for making jewellery.
Rough-outs are glued to a metal chuck and turned on a lathe, sometimes using pieces of broken grinding wheels. The chuck is removed by heating the glue, or—if the operator is inclined—a sharp tap on the chuck with a spanner. A further resining stage may take place, before the piece is returned to the lathe and polished with wet abrasive paper. A final high polish is added using putty powder (finely crushed tin dioxide) applied with a moist piece of felt.
For making jewellery, thin slices are marked out and cut into shapes such as circles or ovals, then finished on a grinding wheel. The rear faces of single-sided pieces are painted white before they are mounted. [1] : 44–49
"The Terror of Blue John Gap" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which appeared in The Strand Magazine of 1910 and describes the experiences of a doctor who, while recuperating from tuberculosis on a Derbyshire farm, investigates mysterious goings-on in a cavern mined for Blue John. [13]
Alabaster is a mineral and a soft rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions and usages for the word alabaster. In archaeology, the term alabaster is a category of objects and artefacts made from the varieties of two different minerals: (i) the fine-grained, massive type of gypsum, and (ii) the fine-grained, banded type of calcite.
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.
Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in modern northeast Afghanistan. Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and as far away as Mauritania. It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun.
The Peak District is an upland area in England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivided into the Dark Peak, moorland dominated by gritstone, and the White Peak, a limestone area with valleys and gorges. The Dark Peak forms an arc on the north, east and west of the district, and the White Peak covers central and southern areas. The highest point is Kinder Scout. Most of the area is within the Peak District National Park, a protected landscape designated in 1951.
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue.
Mam Tor is a 517 m (1,696 ft) hill near Castleton in the High Peak of Derbyshire, England. Its name means "mother hill", so called because frequent landslips on its eastern face have resulted in a multitude of "mini-hills" beneath it. These landslips, which are caused by unstable lower layers of shale, also give the hill its alternative name of Shivering Mountain.
Blue John or Bluejohn may refer to:
Castleton is a village in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England, at the western end of the Hope Valley on the Peakshole Water, a tributary of the River Noe, between the Dark Peak to the north and the White Peak to the south. The population was 642 at the 2011 Census.
Rhodochrosite is a manganese carbonate mineral with chemical composition MnCO3. In its pure form (rare), it is typically a rose-red colour, but it can also be shades of pink to pale brown. It streaks white, and its Mohs hardness varies between 3.5 and 4.5. Its specific gravity is between 3.45 and 3.6. It crystallizes in the trigonal system, and cleaves with rhombohedral carbonate cleavage in three directions. The crystal system of rhodochrosite is trigonal, with a lattice structure in the a rhombohedral system. The carbonate ions (CO3) are arranged in a triangular planar configuration, and the manganese ions (Mn) are surrounded by six oxygen ions in an octahedral arrangement. The MnO6 octahedra and CO3 triangles are linked together to form a three-dimensional structure. Crystal twinning is often present. It can be confused with the manganese silicate, rhodonite, but is distinctly softer. Rhodochrosite is formed by the oxidation of manganese ore, and is located in South Africa, China, and the Americas. It is officially listed as one of the National symbols of Argentina.
The Blue John Cavern is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, England. The others are Peak Cavern, Treak Cliff Cavern and Speedwell Cavern.
Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. The upper dale is surrounded by high fells and heather grouse moors. The River Wear flows through Weardale before reaching Bishop Auckland and then Durham, meeting the sea at Sunderland.
Treak Cliff Cavern is a show cave near Castleton in Derbyshire, England. It is part of the Castleton Site of Special Scientific Interest and one of only two sites where the ornamental mineral Blue John is still excavated. As part of an agreement with English Nature, the Blue John that can be seen in the show cave is not mined but it is extracted in small quantities from other areas of the cave and made into saleable items like bowls, jewellery, and ornaments.
Cave Dale is a dry limestone valley in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. It is located at grid reference SK149824. The northern end of the dale starts at the village of Castleton where the valley sides are almost perpendicular and over 50 metres (160 ft) in height. The dale rises gently after leaving Castleton for approximately 200 metres (220 yd) before becoming steeper culminating in a fine viewpoint down the dale taking in Peveril Castle with Lose Hill behind. After the viewpoint the dale swings west and levels out with gentle gradients, becoming just a shallow depression as it peters out onto the open pastureland between Castleton and Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Oxlow Cavern is a part-natural and part-mined cavern near Castleton in Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the south side of the road running from the A623 at Sparrowpit to the Winnats Pass, west of Castleton, and is almost opposite Giant's Hole on the other side of the road. A few yards from Oxlow Cavern is the connecting Maskill Mine.
Odin Mine is a disused lead mine in the Peak District National Park, situated at grid reference SK133835. It lies on a site of 25 hectares near the village of Castleton, England. It is the oldest documented mine in Derbyshire and is thought to be one of the oldest lead mines in England. The mine is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and has biological and geological significance within the Castleton Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Ashford Black Marble is the name given to a dark limestone, quarried from mines near Ashford-in-the-Water, in Derbyshire, England. Once cut, turned and polished, its shiny black surface is highly decorative. Ashford Black Marble is a very fine-grained sedimentary rock, and is not a true marble in the geological sense. It can be cut and inlaid with other decorative stones and minerals, using a technique known as pietra dura.
Fluorine is a relatively new element in human applications. In ancient times, only minor uses of fluorine-containing minerals existed. The industrial use of fluorite, fluorine's source mineral, was first described by early scientist Georgius Agricola in the 16th century, in the context of smelting. The name "fluorite" derives from Agricola's invented Latin terminology. In the late 18th century, hydrofluoric acid was discovered. By the early 19th century, it was recognized that fluorine was a bound element within compounds, similar to chlorine. Fluorite was determined to be calcium fluoride.
The Barber Cup and Crawford Cup are two non-matching carved fluorite cups from about 50–100 AD. They were discovered during World War I by an Austro-Croatian officer who excavated a Roman tomb near the current Turkish–Syrian border. Both cups are now in the collection of the British Museum, which acquired the Crawford Cup in 1971 and the Barber Cup in 2004. The two cups are the only two vessels carved from fluorite that are known to have survived intact from the Roman period.
The Cornish Hush Mine was a British lead ore and fluorspar mine in Weardale.
The Derbyshire Dome is a geological formation across mid-Derbyshire in England.
Media related to Derbyshire Blue John at Wikimedia Commons