Joseph Ellis II served as Director of the Leicester and Swannington Railway, and formed a partnership with Mr. Breedon Everard of Groby to use the railway as first coal merchants, before extending to granite extraction [REF].
Following the sale of Bardon Hall by Jacomb-Hood, to William Perry Herrick of Beaumanor Hall, in 1864, Everard and the Ellis' renegotiated the lease of the quarry which allowed it to be developed and mechanised [REF].