Grange Top, Ketton

United Kingdom Pit Lane, Stamford, Lincolnshire Hanson Cement

Description:

Grange Top Quarry lies to the north and north west of Ketton village in the County of Rutland, some five kilometres to the west of the town of Stamford. The limestone and clay extracted provides raw materials for the adjacent Ketton cement works for the production of cement. Ketton Quarry has been an active limestone quarry since 1928, with areas at various stages of working and restoration. Its highest point lies at 100m aod. The unworked land is mainly in agricultural use, with extensive areas of woodland and scrub.

Habitat, flora & fauna description:

The quarry is home to 26 different species of butterfly and a large number of birds, including nightingales. It includes w woodland SSSI and nearly 13,000 trees and shrubs have been planted. The company has also built a 63-metre long bat cave in the quarry. In recent years local volunteers have helped clear some of the scrub in the SSSI and grazed the grassland with donkeys. The intention is to link up all of the remaining pockets of grassland, but to leave some scrub.

Ongoing nature projects:
The local WildlifeTrust's small flock of Manx Loghtan sheep graze the area and the rate of scrub removal has been increased so that more calcareous grassland can be established.

Projects in this quarry

Implications of compost incorporation into topsoil as a restoration strategy

Globally soils contain approximately three times as much carbon as the atmosphere (IUCN 2011). The bioavailability of this carbon influences the effect of multiple soil properties, in particular biodiversity. Thereby soil carbon preservation is critical if we are to addresses the COP26 primary strategy “to protect and restore ecosystems”. Effective and targeted post-quarry soil restoration strategies are critical to promote long-term ecosystem development. Poorly managed soil that has been compacted during earthworks will have a degraded physical structure, and may no longer be appropriate for re-instatement into their intended end-use. This research provides the basis of an MSc... View full project

Safe Homes for Sand Martins

Sand martins are a small migratory bird that breed in the UK before making an incredible 3000 mile migration to sub-Saharan Africa, despite weighing only 14 g. Each spring sand martins return to nest in colonies along rivers and in quarries where they excavate nesting burrows in soil and sand banks. The ephemeral nature of these nest sites combined with the presence of predators such as stoat, badgers and carrion crows mean that many nests fail to produce young each summer. These problems, however, can be overcome through the installation of artificial nesting banks. This project involves the construction and subsequent monitoring of an artificial bank with 252 individual nesting... View full project

An investigation of restored soil health at Ketton to improve ecosystem services

Topsoil utilisation following the cessation of quarrying activities requires careful management to maintain its functional capacity to support ecosystem services. Poorly managed soil that has become compacted in storage will have a degraded physical structure, and thus reduced biological function through reduced microbial biomass, diversity and altered community composition. Such soils may no longer be appropriate for re-instatement into their intended end-use within a reasonable time-frame, so alternative restoration strategies may be better employed. Intervention strategies may improve the potential to achieve the targeted use. This research will be the basis of an MSc thesis which aims... View full project

With the strong support of

EU Business & Biodiversity

BirdLife