The first stone quarry in the parish was said to have been opened by John Askew whose initials are said to be inscribed on the lintel of the Masons Arms pub in Moor Top, one of the oldest buildings in the parish [REF].
Saywell (1894) had said that "coal abounds in the vicinity" and told of how, in 1860, an experimental bore of 153 feet was drilled in Long Lane but coal was "not reached".