An abandoned industrial site hiding a wildlife haven

Threlkeld, Lake District The quarry walls here, below Blencathra, are of nutrient-rich microgranite, yielding a fertile soil for plant life to flourish

Ian Hartland opens up the regulator as his saddle-tank locomotive attacks the incline of the quarry's narrow gauge railway. Children in the carriages behind reach out to touch the foliage that brushes the little train as it chuff-chuffs its way up a gradient only slightly less steep than that of the wickedly inclined Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, its wheels just occasionally slipping.

A passenger resembling Ian, with a flat cap and a John Lennon moustache, snaps mobile phone photos of terraces lining the quarry walls, veritable hanging gardens with horsetail and eyebright. Mouse-ear hawkweed, that mini dandelion on a tall stem, is visible everywhere.