Gypsum Mining in East Leake
Beginnings
The Revd. Sidney Pell Potter, in his "A History of east Leake" (1903), tells us that gypsum extraction in the village was begun during the curacy of the Revd. G. A. Sneyd (1874-1879).
At that time, says Potter (p.82), there was much poverty in the village, and in order to alleviate this Mr Sneyd opened a pit on land belonging to Mr. Wootton.
Although Sneyd's endeavour failed, after the Great Central Railway was opened near the village in 1898, the Barnstone Blue Lias Lime Co. took a lease of the minerals on Hotchley Farm and began a successful enterprise. In 1903, notes Potter, the Barnstone Company opened a new pit on adjacent land, with gypsum mining then employing 36 men in the village.