Sculptures and a geology trail on the moors above Haworth are providing a unique insight into the area’s industrial heritage.

A two-and-a-half-mile circular walk and 20-page guide book help outline a forgotten history through rocks, from their formation millions of years ago to the men who quarried and mined the land.

The Penistone Hill Geology Trail – which starts and finishes at Haworth Parish Church – takes in two quarries and various geological features, as well as four sculptures by Stevan Tica.

West Yorkshire Geology Trust chairman Alison Tymon, who wrote the guidebook with local historian Steve Wood, said: “There’s lots of evidence of mining and quarrying in the area, which links us to our industrial heritage, but it’s more than that. These quarries provided all the stone for the mills and dwellings in the Upper Worth valleys. Most of the buildings we see here today have been built of stone from these hills.

“People have always been interested in the heritage of the mills but not so much the mines and quarries that helped to build them. Now that is changing.”

Stevan said he had worked on the sculptures, carved from Yorkshire stone, for two years.

“Sculpting is a hobby for me,” said the 57-year-old father of triplets. “This was a very interesting commission and involved a lot of research.

“Two of the sculptures illustrate the origins of the landscape. The first is of a fossilised tree stump, with a few leaves and a dragonfly to represent the material that decomposed to form coal over millions of years, and the second is a river channel which shows how water carved out the landscape.

“The more recent history can be seen in a relief carving of a horse gin, a mechanical device used by miners to bring buckets up the mine shaft to the surface. This is the biggest sculpture, weighing about a ton. There’s also a depiction of two quarrymen splitting a rock using the plug and feather technique.”

Yugoslavia-born Stevan said Bradford Council’s countryside service had brought the stone to his home, where he did the carving. The pieces were then collected to be lifted into place on the trail.

The trail and booklet have been funded through the Watershed Landscape Project, managed by rural regeneration company Pennine Prospects, in partnership with Bradford Council.

Copies of the booklet are available, priced £2, from Haworth Visitor Information Centre.