Industry at the Forks of the Credit 		     

The Hoffman Lime Kiln Ruins

The Hoffman Lime Ruins before you are evidence of the industrial heritage of Forks of the Credit. The Hoffman Lime Kiln was constructed in 1896 with 12 draw kilns and was approximately 30 metres long and 15 metres wide. The chimney base supported a chimney that reached over 30 metres into the sky, and the entire kiln complex was housed in a protective outer building

  
How Did the Lime Kiln Work?

Blocks of dolostone (a type of limestone) were loaded into the kiln through the large openings, called wickets, around the outside of the kiln. The internal ring was divided into 12 burning chambers that operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the temperature inside each chamber could be individually regulated.

Each chamber within the kiln was at a different stage in the processing of
the limestone. One chamber could be loaded with fresh limestone while
another chamber could be emptied of the lumps of lime ready for sale.
The lump lime extracted from the kiln was loaded onto trains at a siding
beside the kiln and taken to local markets for use in construction,
industry and agriculture.
  
Railway trestle and the Carroll and Vick Company Hoffman
Lime Kiln with the outer building and chimney still intact. 		 
Quarrying Operations

During the late 1800s this section of the Niagara Escarpment was in the middle of a booming quarrying business due in large part to the opening of the Credit Valley Railway in 1879.

Several quarrying companies were located at Forks of the Credit, and sandstone was quarried intensively. Covering the sandstone was a thick layer of dolostone. Using the overlying dolostone to make lime in the Hoffman Lime Kiln yielded a marketable product and opened up new sandstone supplies. As you walk along the trail you will pass the remains of old railroad sidings and derricks, all essential to the quarrying
operations of the day.

Sandstone quarried at Forks of the Credit during the late 1880s and early 1890s was used to build the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Building at Queen's Park in Toronto.		  
Interior of an Existing Hoffman Lime Kiln at Llanymynech, UK - The lime kiln at Forks of the Credit would have been very similar    
 
Forks of the Credit Railway Station circa 1900 with the Hoffman Lime Kiln in the background.