A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skeletons and pearls. Materials containing much calcium carbonate or resembling it are described as calcareous. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime and is produced when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions to form limescale. It has medical use as a calcium supplement or as an antacid, but excessive consumption can be hazardous and cause hypercalcemia and digestive issues.
Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level. It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. In 1974, the municipal borough merged with other nearby boroughs, including Glossop, to form the local government district and borough of High Peak.
Calcium oxide, commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term lime connotes calcium-containing inorganic compounds, in which carbonates, oxides, and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, quicklime specifically applies to the single compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products, such as cement, is called free lime.
A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is
Agricultural lime, also called aglime, agricultural limestone, garden lime or liming, is a soil additive made from pulverized limestone or chalk. The primary active component is calcium carbonate. Additional chemicals vary depending on the mineral source and may include calcium oxide. Unlike the types of lime called quicklime and slaked lime, powdered limestone does not require lime burning in a lime kiln; it only requires milling. All of these types of lime are sometimes used as soil conditioners, with a common theme of providing a base to correct acidity, but lime for farm fields today is often crushed limestone. Historically, liming of farm fields in centuries past was often done with burnt lime; the difference is at least partially explained by the fact that affordable mass-production-scale fine milling of stone and ore relies on technologies developed since the mid-19th century.
Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting under restricted supply of ambient oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), generally for the purpose of removing impurities or volatile substances and/or to incur thermal decomposition.
Lime is an inorganic material composed primarily of calcium oxides and hydroxides. It is also the name for calcium oxide which occurs as a product of coal-seam fires and in altered limestone xenoliths in volcanic ejecta. The International Mineralogical Association recognizes lime as a mineral with the chemical formula of CaO. The word lime originates with its earliest use as building mortar and has the sense of sticking or adhering.
Dove Holes is a village in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It has a population of about 1,200 (2001), shown in the 2011 Census as being included in the population of Chapel-en-le-Frith. It straddles the A6 road, approximately three miles north of Buxton and three miles south of Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Batts Combe quarry, grid reference ST460550 is a limestone quarry on the edge of Cheddar village on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England.
Harpur Hill is a small village on the outskirts of Buxton, Derbyshire, England. It is in the Cote Heath ward of the High Peak Borough Council. It has a primary school, a park, a pub, a working men's club and a Methodist church.
The Milwaukee Falls Lime Company is the former owner of a limestone quarry and lime kilns located in Grafton, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. The quarry and kilns are now Lime Kiln Park, which also features a pavilion, playground, walking paths, sledding hill, horseshoe pits, and disc golf course.
RAF Harpur Hill is a former Royal Air Force station, situated at Harpur Hill near Buxton, Derbyshire in England. The site was operational from 1938 to 1960 and was mainly used as an underground munitions storage facility. It became the largest ammunitions dump in the country across the 500 acres (200 ha) site.
Bishopswood Meadows is a nature reserve situated within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the county of Somerset, England. The reserve comprises five fields totalling 9.3 hectares ; all of the fields are on a gentle north-facing slope with the River Yarty at the base. The reserve, formerly part of Woodend Farm, was purchased by Somerset Wildlife Trust in 1991–92.
A limepit is either a place where limestone is quarried, or a man-made pit used to burn lime stones in the same way that modern-day kilns and furnaces constructed of brick are now used above ground for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate, CaCO3) and by which quicklime (calcium oxide, CaO) is produced, an essential component in waterproofing and in wall plastering (plaster skim).
The Buxton lime industry has been important for the development of the town of Buxton in Derbyshire, England, and it has shaped the landscape around the town.
The Derbyshire Dome is a geological formation across mid-Derbyshire in England.
The Wye Valley is the limestone valley of the River Wye in the White Peak of Derbyshire, England. The source of the River Wye is west of Buxton on Axe Edge Moor. One main channel runs underground through Poole's Cavern. The river flows though Buxton Pavilion Gardens and then along a culvert under the town centre. After leaving the flat area of central Buxton, the Wye Valley becomes distinct as a gorge running east for 10 miles (16 km) before the valley broadens at Ashford-in-the Water.
Grin Low is a hill overlooking Buxton in Derbyshire, in the Peak District. The summit is 434 metres (1,424 ft) above sea level.
High Edge is a limestone hill overlooking Harpur Hill, Buxton in Derbyshire, in the Peak District. The summit is 472 metres (1,549 ft) above sea level. The lower hilltop is marked by a cairn.
