Approximate Location:
OS Grid Reference: SJ 860 779
Latitude: 53.29.35N Longitude: 2.21.33W
The home of the adult Colin Whisterfield who, whilst working at Jodrell Bank Observatory, felt that he always had to be at Alderley Edge in the hope of finding his lost twin, Susan. The quarry appears as a location in several sections of Boneland:
“The hut sat in a corner of the quarry, and at the junction of the two sides was a tunnel into the rock. It had a gate of iron bars.”
Garner, A., 2012, Boneland. Fourth Estate. London. p.75.
Colin described the tunnel, which he used as a wine cellar, to Meg Massey: “It’s a trial adit to test the quality of the rock. It runs along the horizontal between the conglomerate and the dimension stone.”
Garner, A., 2012, Boneland. Fourth Estate. London. p.76.
Alan Garner‘s decision to abandon Colin to a lonely existence in a hut in the quarry may have been based on the real experience of John Evans, the Hermit of Alderley. The latter took to Church Quarry after suffering a mental health episode in 1915 – apparently after losing a loved one on the Titanic.