Lead bale sites in Nidderdale
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
Five lead smelting sites have been located in Nidderdale, Yorkshire and residues from them examined. In addition , several other possible sites have been identified from place names. Nidderdale is unusual in that early mining was controlled by monasteries and the records of one, Fountains Abbey, contain considerable information on the medieval lead industry. The sites are located near woodland and on routes which are determined by the positions of river crossings and monastic granges which would have served as staging posts or administrative centres. There are references in the Fountains records of the use of a furnace for smelting lead and it is possible that this took place at a smelting site at Dacre Banks. The relative paucity of smelting residues at the Nidderdale sites has been attributed to the mineralogical composition of the ores which led to minimal incorporation of silica into the slags, the instability of roasted calcite slags with regard to weathering and the fertility of the soil which would have promoted rapid regeneration. Many of the place name sites are on private land where access is relatively difficult.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Brophy J and Hovell G 2010, ‘The Iron Age (Nidderdale) project - mining and smelting in Dacre and Darley’, British Mining 90, 53–73.
Fowler J T (ed) 1918, Memorials of Fountains III (Durham: Surtees Society 130).
Grainge T 1863, Nidderdale (Pateley Bridge).
Jennings B 1967, A history of Nidderdale (Huddersfield).
Kirkshaw S 1735, ‘A letter from the Rev. Mr S. Kirkshaw to Wm. Sloane Esq. F.R.S. concerning two pigs of lead, found near Ripley, with this inscription on them IMP CAES DOMITIANO AVG COS VII’, Philosophical Transactions 41, 560.
Lucas J 1885, ‘Grassington lead mines’, in W Wheater, Old Yorkshire 1 (series 2), 49–53.
Murphy S and Baldwin H 2001, ‘Early lead smelting sites in the Swaledale area of Yorkshire’, Historical Metallurgy 35(1), 1–21.
Raistrick A 1930, ‘A pig of lead with Roman inscription’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 30, 181–83.
Raistrick A and Jennings B 1965, A history of lead mining in the Pennines (London).
Smith R 2005, ‘Bale smelting – a summary of the NMRS bales study project’. Paper presented at the Historical Metallurgy Society conference on lead-silver smelting at Middleham, 9–11th September 2005.
Smith R 2006, ‘A typology of lead-bale slags based on their physicochemical properties’, Historical Metallurgy 40(2), 115–128.
Smith R and Murphy S 2003, ‘Bale smelting sites at Calver Hill, Swaledale, Yorkshire’, British Mining 73, 46–71.
Smith R and Murphy S 2007, ‘Lead bale smelting in the north of England’, in D J Linton (ed), ‘“The Lode of History”, Proceedings of the Welsh Mines Society Conference 2007’, Welsh Mining 1, 17–30.
Vernon R W, McDonnell G and Schmidt A 2002 ‘The geophysical evaluation of British lead and copper working sites. Comparisons with Fe working’, Archaeological Prospection 9, 123–134.
