Description:Stone sorting at J.C. Staton's Gypsum Mine, Fauld, near Tutbury. The locomotive was made by Bagnall's of Stafford in 1890-1. The mine entrance is behind the shed.
Mining at Fauld began in the 19th century. By the 1890s there were two companies mining at Fauld: Peter Ford & Co. and J.C. Staton & Co.
John Clark Staton and William Newton were working as cement manufacturers in Burton upon Trent in the 1840s. The company purchased the old cotton mill at Tutbury in 1890 and adapted it to crush and grind gypsum to make plaster. Gypsum was transported from the mine by a narrow gauge railway to Scropton Sidings, where it joined the main line to be taken to the mill at Tutbury. The mine was worked using the pillar and stall method and employed 40 to 60 people. The mine is now owned by British Gypsum, and although gypsum production ceased in 1989, it still (in 2008) produces anhydrite for use in cement manufacture.
This photograph is from the collections of Tutbury Museum.