Category: Military

For many years Mountsorrel has been famous for its pink granite,reflected in its use for the village’s war memorial. This exceptionally hard stone has been used throughout the country – one of the most notable examples being on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace (sadly no longer visible since it was covered in tarmac).

Mountsorrel has been involved historically with quarrying for many centuries but the industry was developed on a much larger scale in the late 18^th century.

Once it was discovered how to work the stone into more regular shapes and sizes, it became ideal for buildings such as churches, bridges and schools. With better management and working methods, the quarry industry became increasingly successful, so that by 1870 it employed between 500 and 600 men. In 1876 the Mountsorrel Granite Company took over the quarry and by 1900 200,000 tons of stone a year were being extracted by the 600 men and 30 boys (earning on average 30 shillings and between 1 and 3 shillings per week respectively) employed at Mountsorrel quarry.

By the beginning of the 1^st World War, the quarry was one of the biggest employers in the village, offering work for men and boys possessing a range of skills. The company provided cottages, a hospital and a school for the village.                                                  

The Mountsorrel Granite Company’s (MGC) association with the armed forces – and in particular the Territorial Army – began well before the outbreak of war in 1914. In October 1913 the Company agreed to sell a piece of land to the County Territorial Association for the re-erection of a Drill Hall – the previous one having burnt down – near the Company cottages on Loughborough Road. The conveyance of this land to the Leicestershire and Rutland Territorial Association took place in the same month.

When war was declared in August 1914, several of the directors of the MGC who were already serving members of the Territorial Forces were rapidly involved in active service. Major Robert Edmund Martin, the Managing Director, as Second in Command, 5^th Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment, his brother, Major William Francis Martin, the Company Secretary, as C Squadron Commander, Leicestershire Yeomanry and their cousin, Captain Charles Hamilton Martin, a Director, re-joined the Leicestershire Yeomanry as Assistant Adjutant.  Another cousin and Director, Captain Gerald H. Martin, was serving as a regular army officer, in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. For the length of their army service, they each had a reduction in their annual salary from the MGC. In the absence of these key men who between them were the decision- makers of the company, additional directors were appointed to run the quarrying business for the duration of the war.

Aware of the potentially disastrous effect on the village community of the loss of earnings amongst quarry families, MGC issued a letter on 14^th August 1914, which stated that 10 shillings per week would be paid to the wives of all Territorials and Army Reservists in their employment who were called up for military service. This arrangement also applied to the widowed mothers of single men, who relied upon their sons’ earnings for their living. This payment was to continue until the County Committee or any other body dealing with the matter of supporting the families of serving men, decided what action to take. The amount provided by the Granite Company was then potentially subject to change.

By mid-August 1914, 32 quarry employees had been called up for military service. In August 1916 33 quarry employees departed for the Front, having assembled at the Granite Company offices before marching to Sileby station, accompanied by the Mountsorrel Band.

The loss of quarry workers to enlistment greatly affected production. For example, in 1915 the number of setts (rectangular units of quarried stone) produced in the Granite Company quarries was only 7649 tons, as opposed to 14,060 tons in the previous year. Kerb production in 1914 was 1,095 tons but by 1915 this number had fallen to only a third of that. Broken stone work was less labour-intensive and production of this commodity rose slightly. Sett-makers did, however, agree to work outside their own branch whilst labour was in short supply. Experienced quarry workers were sought out by the relevant authorities to join the Quarry Companies.

Shortage of labour in the quarries was so acute by 1916 that the War Office was asked to authorise the retention of necessary labour. The average working week in the quarries at this time was 56 hours – or until it became too dark to see properly. By 1919 this figure had reduced to 48 hours per week, with the quarries closing at 5.15p.m. and 5p.m. on a Friday.

A further attempt to address the lack of workers was made, with the Company Chairman agreeing to contact the War Office to arrange for a squad of prisoners of war to be employed at Mountsorrel quarries as soon as the weather was suitable for them to live under canvas. The additional workforce was eventually provided by 30 Austrians and 3 Poles who were interned aliens and not prisoners of war. They were billeted at the Mechanics’ Institute and were allowed to come and go up to a radius of 5 miles without guards accompanying them. The villagers in the main accepted these men as they were aliens rather than enemy soldiers. By mid-March 1919, these internees had all left the village.

In March 1917, four new apprenticeships were agreed, with a view to increasing the number of skilled sett-makers. Later that summer there was cause for a small celebration to mark the long service of many of the older quarrymen still at work and an informal group photograph was taken. The minimum service of those present was 40 years but the longest- serving had reportedly worked in the quarry for 75 years. These older quarrymen were joined by two Martin cousins, Lt Col Robert Edmund Martin and Captain Charles Hamilton Martin, both of whom had returned to their roles in the Company having been invalided out of the Army following injuries at the Hohenzollern Redoubt and the Battle of Frezenberg respectively in 1915.

At the outset of the War many Mountsorrel quarrymen were already serving in the Territorial Force with 5^th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment. They were rapidly joined by others who volunteered in the first weeks of the war. There were also a good number of Regular Army Reservists working in the quarry and they also left rapidly to rejoin their former units.

It is impossible to put an exact figure on the number of men who left in those first months of the war but we can identify 113 Mountsorrel men who worked in the quarries and served during the war.  Of these, 47 served in Quarry Companies RE and a further 8 served in associated units such Road Construction Companies.  There were a further 4 men who do not appear to have a quarrying background but served in Quarry Companies – two of whom were in the boot and shoe industry prior to the war. Each Quarry Company had two bootmakers in its ranks to ensure that repairs could be made wherever the men were at the time. Of those who were not transferred to Quarry Companies, 21 had either been killed or invalided out of the Army before the demand for quarrymen arose.

As the First World War developed into static trench warfare and the size and complexity of the armies on the Western Front grew, so did the need for military road and rail construction and with that a demand for raw materials and the men to obtain them from quarries.

The first two companies, 198th and 199th Quarry Companies Royal Engineers(RE) were formed in the summer of 1916, and the men were gathered at the RE Tunnelling Depot at Clipstone in Nottinghamshire. Moving to France in August they came under the control of the Director of Works there.

By August of 1917 this number had been raised to a total of 10 companies. The large increase in the number of Quarrying Companies was part of a much greater demand for manpower and saw men with little military training being rushed to the front.  The quarries from across the country saw skilled men needed for quarrying operations on the Western Front.  Along with the new recruits, professional quarrymen who were already serving in the Army were transferred so that their trade skills could best be used.  Men of the 1^st/4^th and 1^st /5^th Battalions, Leicestershire Regiment were transferred, through the Divisional Engineer unit, North Midland Field Squadron, Royal Engineers to the new Quarry Companies.  These men are believed to have been amongst those who formed 328th and 329th Companies in France.

Training was limited to testing the men’s quarrying skills and knowledge. They did not receive any true military training and weapons issues were minimal. On arrival in France the majority of the units went immediately to the area of the Marquise/Rinxent quarry complex, northeast of Boulogne in northern France.

At Marquise the work was 24 hours a day, in a shift system. It is reported that the shift continued until the required amount of stone had been quarried.  A Quarryman writing home states that whilst at Marquise/Rinxent “we were split up into 3 parties for separate quarries and where I had to go was called the Happy Valley or Heureuse and was about 1 ¼ miles away but we have to rise at 5 and go to work at 5.45 and work till 5.30 with ½ hour for breakfast and 1 ¼ hours for dinner but you have so much work to do before you can give over for the day and for a company like ours we have to turn out 300 tons for the 24 hours work. So on the Monday morning May 20 we all began working in our quarry day and night shift. The quarry is called Beaulieu and I am working the first week on day work.”

It was not unusual for Quarry Company men to remain in France long after the Armistice was signed as the Quarrying Companies were needed to assist the French and Belgians with the rebuilding of their roads. Furthermore, because these units were formed late in the war, the men had to wait for demobilization until those who had been called up before them had been discharged.

Mountsorrel men served with 9 different Quarry Companies, mostly in the Marquise/Rinxent quarry complex close to the Pas de Calais but even here, although well behind the front lines, they were still subject to enemy action from air attack. Additionally there was the ongoing risk of accidents in quarry work and it was due to an accident that Mountsorrel man, 262380 Sapper Cecil Porter of 324^th Quarrying Company RE was killed on 1^st April 1917. On 25th September 1917 the Beaulieu quarry within the Marquise/Rinxent complex was bombed by enemy aircraft, resulting in the deaths of two Mountsorrel men, 196184 Sapper John Henry Pick and 196206 Sapper Harry Slingsby, who were both formerly employed by the Mountsorrel Granite Company.

Major William Francis Martin was killed at the Battle of Frezenberg. His elder brother Robert, having survived the war, later became the Chairman of Leicestershire County Council from 1924 to 1960. He recalled:

“I remember the astonishing effect with which the Mountsorrel quarrymen wielded their picks and shovels when it came to digging trenches, just as  in later stages of the war, under my cousin’s command in the stone quarries of northern France, they produced roadstone in quantities which astonished the authorities.”

It took some considerable time for the village to return to normal after the disruptions of war. The return of many of the quarry workers, for example, gave rise to housing shortages in the village. The Granite Company considered addressing this problem by obtaining former army huts for accommodation, together with a canteen and baths.

Nevertheless, quarrying in Mountsorrel carried on, and indeed continues to this day. There is no doubt, however, that the war had a substantial effect on the quarry industry, not least in respect of the 24 employees who gave their lives in defence of their country.