The neighbouring dales of Wensleydale and Bishopdale, have some great examples of lead mining remains including Bolton park mine in Wensleydale and Braithwaite smelt mill in Bishopdale. Read on for more information about these sites.
Whilst you are in the area we strongly recommend a visit to The Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, Wensleydale. Here you can find a superb collection of artefacts from the lead mining industry in the Yorkshire Dales. All artefacts are displayed within a realistic reconstruction of an underground lead mine.
For more information including opening times, visit the Dales Countryside Museum.
Bolton park mine – Lead mining in Wensleydale
Bolton Park mine operated during the second half of the nineteenth century and has some wonderfully well-preserved remains. These remains illustrate how lead ore was sorted and processed before being carried away to be smelted into lead.
Rock containing lead was hauled out of the nearby level on a tramway to open-sided storage bins called ‘bouse teams’. Here it was sorted by hand to remove large pieces of ore. The rest was then crushed between water-powered rollers. Further sorting and sieving in water took place on two dressing floors whose remains can clearly be seen.
Below the dressing floor, settling ponds allowed more lead concentrate to be obtained from ‘slimes’ left over after the sieving. Not a scrap of lead ore was discarded if at all possible and water was also carefully managed. Spoil from driving the level was used to build a large curving dam for water storage.
There are several interpretation panels on the site with reconstruction drawings showing how the mine worked. The site can be visited as part of our Bolton Park Mine walk route.
Holes like gruyere cheese … the story of the rabbits and the dressing floors
The spoil heaps and waste dressing floors of the Dales have evolved their own ecology over the centuries. Lead is toxic to many plants and animals; a dressing floor will contain too many toxins for anything to grow for decades. Gradually, however, after abandonment plants which can tolerate lead colonise the waste heaps, soils build up, and grasses establish themselves. If left undisturbed the heaps do vanish under shallow turf host lead tolerant species like the wild pansy and leadwort.
It is less common to find an animal that will tolerate the poisonous chemicals. The most toxic areas around lead dressing floors were frequently a source of danger for farm animals. There are indeed many records down the centuries of farmers losing cattle and sheep to the ‘staggers’. Still, there are areas of pasture that farmers are wary of. One such place in Swaledale where sheep had persistently died, was found on excavation by the Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group to be the site of late medieval smelting debris.
It is therefore rather astonishing to find that one animal – the rabbit – has actually come to enjoy residing in these toxic wastes. Amazingly they not only escape danger of death, but indeed frequently seek out the heaps in which to make their burrows. Bolton Park Mine near Castle Bolton in Wensleydale houses one such ‘rabbit city’, presumably sought after because it is warm and dry and easy to burrow into. The massive burrow systems are undermining the spoil heaps and destroying the archaeological stratigraphy they contain. In fact the waste heaps are coming to resemble gruyere cheese!
Braithwaite smelt mill – Lead mining in Bishopdale
The chimney and small length of flue that lie beside the road up Walden valley are all that survives of Braithwaite smelt mill. There may have been a smelt mill on the site as early as 1657. Fumes from the mill were blamed for killing farm animals in nearby fields and in 1747 some local boys were encouraged to set the mill on fire. Three local graziers were actually accused of breaking a window in the mill and helping one of the boys inside to set the fire. The mill in some form or another seems to have survived and worked until the 1870s.
Many early smelt mills were built like this one with short horizontal flues linked to a chimney. Larger nineteenth century mills had much more complex flue systems which could be several miles long. These long flues took the poisonous fumes away from workers in the mills. They also allowed the ‘fumes’ to cool and vapourised lead to settle onto the flue sides where it could be recovered.
Pre site visit information
Safety First
You will get the most from exploring the remains of the lead mining industry in the Yorkshire Dales if you are properly equipped. Many of the sites are high up on moorland where the weather is changeable. Sunshine can turn quickly to rain and temperatures can be significantly chillier than down in the valley bottom. Some of the sites lie along rough or muddy paths so good boots are essential. If you handle pieces of lead ore, remember that lead is poisonous so wash your hands thoroughly before eating. Please be very aware that there may be open or poorly capped mine shafts lying close by. Don’t be tempted to explore away from the path and make sure dogs and children are kept well under control.
Find more information to help you plan your visit here.
Accessibility
Bolton Park Mine is not accessible to all.
Braithwaite smelt mill chimney can be seen from the road.