William died on 5th September 1874, leaving his widow, Elizabeth in control of the company. Redmond Cafferata, who is said to have been a natural engineer despite a lack of formal training, took over the company in 1881. As the Beacon Hill quarry was showing signs of giving out, Redmond decided to look further afield. In 1897 he took a lease on an existing quarry three miles away at Hawton. The lease was owned by one Rev. John Holden, who was said to have bought the land in anticipation of the future expansion of Newark in that direction. The expansion never came, but the value of the gypsum that was to be extracted - and is still being extracted at Hawton - more than compensated. R. B. Cafferata, who had joined the firm in 1894, took charge of the Hawton undertaking.

Quarrymen with steam loco at Hawton

Steam Compressor at the Hawton Quarry

The quarry on the 158-acre Hawton site was, in fact, simply a circular hole, 100 yards in diameter. The methods of extraction were the same as at Beacon Hill.  Having expanded and ensured himself a gypsum supply for many years, Redmond Parker modernised the plant and established his own large growing family, of seven sons (an eighth son had died in infancy)and five daughters, in Irnham Hall, near Corby, Lincolnshire.   A sign of the spacious times was that the Great Northern Railway, anxious to please in a regrettably out-dated manner, gave Redmond a slip carriage of his own, to be attached to the express passing through Newark at five in the evening, to take him to Lincolnshire, where it was again slipped off. In fact, Redmond only used this facility at weekends, spending weekday nights in The Cottage at the works.