Hutton’s Marl Pit

James Hutton's Marl Pit
James Hutton's Marl Pit

Now a habitat for woodland and wetland plants and animals, the excavation from which Hutton extracted marl to improve the soils at Slighhouses will have been larger than it is today. None-the-less, it is an impressive testimony to the physical hardship endured by those who farmed before mechanisation. As he acknowledged himself “I find myself already more than half transformed into a brute”. Quantities commonly spread from the Slighhouses marl pit were “sometimes to the extent of 400 two-horse loads per acre” .

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James Hutton the pioneer