Middleton Quarry

Middleton Quarry
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Country	England
Region	North East
District	Teesdale
Location	NY948245
- coordinates	54°36′58″N 2°4′53″W / 54.61611°N 2.08139°W / 54.61611; -2.08139Coordinates: 54°36′58″N 2°4′53″W / 54.61611°N 2.08139°W / 54.61611; -2.08139
Area	6.0 ha (14.8 acres)
Notification	1964
Management	Natural England
Area of Search	County Durham
Interest	Biological
Location of Middleton Quarry SSSI, Co Durham
Website: Map of site

Middleton Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Teesdale district of west County Durham, England. It is a disused quarry, from which Whin Sill stone was formerly excavated. It lies just south of the River Tees, opposite the village of Middleton-in-Teesdale on the river's northern bank.

Since mineral working ceased, the quarry has been re-colonised by a variety of vegetation types. On the quarry floor, natural seepage has given rise to areas of open water, which grade into a variety of soligenous mire and fen vegetation types.

Where a skeletal soil layer has developed on the quarry floor and spoil heaps, patches of grassland occur, with species characteristic of base-rich soils, such as quaking grass, Briza media, and limestone bedstraw, Galium sterneri. On shallow slopes, this gives way to a neutral grassland characterised by false oat-grass, Arrhenatherum elatius, and Yorkshire fog, Holcus lanatus. Above the quarry, this is replaced by acid grassland, in which wavy hair-grass, Deschampsia flexuosa, is dominant.^[1]

The quarry supports a moth fauna which includes at least two species, the northern rustic, Standfussiana lucernea, and the anomalous wainscot, Stilbia anomala, that are rare in north-east England.

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