A QUARRY which supplied the sandstone for some of East Lancashire's grandest buildings is to close in three years.

West Craven Stone Company has told Lancashire County Council it believes all possible stone extraction will be completed at Catlow Quarry, near Nelson, by 2008.

For more than 100 years several quarries around Catlow have extracted sandstone and used it to produce the sort of stone used in East Lancashire's most prominent buildings.

In 1850 the trade employed 70 people in Nelson - by 1890 the number had risen to 250.

Stone from Catlow Quarry was also used to build Manchester's city art gallery, which dates back to 1882, and is a similar age to Blackburn's cotton exchange - now Apollo cinemas - Blackburn Town Hall, Darwen Tower and Darwen's India Mill.

It is not known how many of those buildings used Catlow stone but Stuart Parigo, planning officer at Lancashire County Council, said: "The type of stone produced there meant it would have been used in many of the grand buildings in Blackburn and in other towns, such as Nelson

.

"It has a long history, despite only being a small quarry and was one of the main suppliers for the area."

The quarry was owned by Benjamin Chaffer, who formed the local board for Nelson, and was valued at £576 a year in 1848.

Local historian John Bentley, of Halifax Road, Briercliffe, said: "The stone was carted from Catlow for local use to the canal wharf where it was shipped by barge or to Chaffer sidings for transport by rail.

"Chaffer sidings were between Nelson and Colne and a special siding where Barkerhouse Road ends today.

"The stone was used extensively throughout Lancashire but got as far as South Africa."

Stone mason Mick Hayes, of New Taylor Fold, Briercliffe said it would be a struggle to repair civic buildings such as Blackburn Town Hall once the quarry had closed.

He said: "It's the only working quarry around here and if you needed stone to match it you would be struggling to find similar quality stone.

"The replacement stone may not be as strong and would not last as long as the Catlow stone."

A report to the county development control committee confirmed that Catlow Quarry would cease operating in 2008, one year later than originally planned.

The report stated the site would then benefit from phased restoration and a landscaping scheme which would allow the site to re-vegitate naturally.

It added: "The low intensity of the stone extraction means that only a very small portion of the site is now being disturbed.

"Catlow Quarry is now one of the smallest quarries in the county.

"Historically the quarry complex has produced dressed stone that has been used for the construction of important buildings in Nelson, Manchester and Blackburn."

Nobody from West Craven Quarry Company was available for comment.