The 'parish' or town quarry was on Dale Road, behind the Boat House Hotel; it was also known as the Harvey Dale quarry. Limestone was quarried here. By 1941^[1941] it was listed under the ownership of Derbyshire Stone Ltd. who were big employers in the district.

Cawdor quarry, to the North West of Matlock and beside the railway line, was also quarried for limestone. Limestone has a variety of uses. For example, broken limestone was crushed and used for road surfaces. In 1891 William Edward Constable & Co were listed as tar paving contractors and the stone was used in asphalt macadam.^[1891] Limestone was used as a flux in blast furnaces when smelting iron and there was also lime-burning.

Derbyshire Fluor Spar Co. Ltd. were listed as mineral merchants at High Tor works in Matlock Dale 1932^[1932]. Quarrying for fluor spar also took place in the Upperwood area of Matlock Bath and in what had been the grounds of the original Matlock Bath Pavilion. However, fluor spar was mainly mined and lead was found amongst the fluor spar rock.

Whilst providing both employment and building materials for local people, it was the existence of the large quarries that prevented Matlock from being included in the Peak District National Park. Many will recall the warning whistle followed by the thump of the blast, the dust that seemed to cover everywhere and the large lorries with their massive tyres thundering along the narrow local roads.

The conflict between need and nature is highlighted in the poem by the English poet John Betjeman, a visitor to nearby Chatsworth and a friend of the Duke's family, in his poem entitled 'Matlock Bath'.^[4] On 31 March, 1999 a newspaper article by Linus Gregoriadis was published in The Independent which also drew attention to conservation matters and used the extract below from Betjeman's poem.^[5]

From "Matlock Bath"
by John Betjeman^[4]

How long before the pleasant acres
Of intersecting Lovers' Walks
Are rolled across by limestone breakers,
Whole woodlands snapp'd like cabbage stalks?
O God, our help in ages past,
How long will Speedwell Cavern last?

There's a story behind this 'Matlock Bath' poem. In the early part of the twentieth century George Drabble owned the saw mills near Matlock Bath station and it was proposed to extend the quarry near the station. If the plan had been carried out a whole section of hillside would have been removed and the Lover's Walks beside the River Derwent would have disappeared.