Lead Industry of Wensleydale and Swaledale: Vol 2: The Smelting Mills

Visitors to the moors and dales of the North Riding of Yorkshire cannot fail to see the very evident remains of many centuries of working for lead ore and other minerals. The many adit

entrances, shafts tips, ruined smelting mills and isolated cottages are now silent witnesses to

this past industry in which fortunes were made and lost. Although lacking the gaunt engine house of the Cornish mines, the great ‘hushes’ and long smelt-mill flues are characteristic features of the area. Lead mining and smelting in Wensleydale and Swaledale have a history stretching back to Roman times. They were worked on a small scale until a great period of expansion began in the sixteenth century, and continued until the late nineteenth century

Volume 2 deals with the technical developments in lead smelting and gives a chronological history of all the known smelting mills in Wensleydale and Swaledale Each book is well-illustrated with photographs, maps and plans, and is based on original research and fieldwork, much of it previously unpublished, by the leading authority on the subject.