Ratcliffe Gypsum

The area around Gotham in Nottinghamshire was once the centre of a busy gypsum mining industry with a series of tramways and railways leading from the mines to roadside depots or down to wharves on the River Trent or sidings on the main line railways. Today the local mines have all closed, but the plaster works at East Leake continues to work with gypsum supplied from the desulphurisation process at Ratcliffe power station. The large gypsum boulders seen here in front of the power station have been unearthed during the widening of the A453(T) road nearby. The fact that they have been gathered together suggests that they may be due for processing into the plaster industry.