East Grain beck drops down a small waterfall to join Swinner Gill. Just left of the fall is the entrance to the Main or Low Level which intercepted galena bearing veins, and was begun in the late 1740’s. Between 1751-1756, 370 tons of ore were extracted for the Lord Wharton’s trustees. Lead was smelted at the complex of buildings seen above the fall, but there’s little evidence here of bouse teams, crushing & dressing floors, or a wheel pit, so some of this site is a bit of a mystery. By 1832 some 1964 tons of ore had been extracted, but production ceased soon after, although there were further attempts at mining here in the 1860’s & 70’s. The smelt mill is shown as ‘disused’ on maps of the 1850’s, so maybe smelting had moved down the gill to the Beldi Smelt mill.
Stunning scenery in a remote area, by Swaledale, North Yorkshire.
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For a list of Ian Cook’s photography and TravelGumbo contributions, please click on this link.
very nice set as always my friend,i can only aspire to be as good as this