Cash boost to prop up remains of lead-mining work in Dales

Grassington Moor was a major lead working centre from the 17th to the 19th centuries and is now a scheduled ancient monument. The 2.5 square kilometre site spans the development from the small-scale workings of individual mines to a major industrial landscape.

Between 1821 and 1861 more than 20,000 tons of lead were produced and around 170 people were employed in the industry.

Yesterday English Heritage chair Baroness Kay Andrews visited the site to announce the award of 50,000 to help safeguard what is regarded as one of the country's most important lead mining ruins.

The site has suffered from serious water erosion in recent years, exacerbated by heavy rainfall.

English Heritage North Yorkshire team leader Neil Redfern said: "This is a very special place.

"You can actually stand in exactly the same spot as 17th century men, women and children who toiled amidst a horseshoe of rubble, sorting and breaking lead ore out of stone.

"Lead mining was a tough way to make a living and conditions were often appalling," he added.

Robert White, senior historic environment officer with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, said the site showed how the industry developed over time from small family businesses, probably in

conjunction with other trades such as farming, to a major industrialised centre utilising horse power and then water power.

Surviving remains on Grassington Moor include a network of shafts, waste mounds, dressing floors, a smelting mill with a vertical chimney and 1.7 kms of ground level flues.

The appointment of John Taylor as the Duke of Devonshire's mineral agent in 1818 laid the foundations for the most prosperous lead mining period on the site.

Taylor built dams to power several water wheels, sank deep shafts and constructed roads linking them with mechanised dressing mills where ore was crushed and separated before being smelted.

Lead mining ended at Grassington Moor in 1880 but the spoil heaps were also reworked in the 20th century for important minerals, such as barites, used in the production of paints.

Mr White said conditions could be tough: "They were working with a heavy material in a fairly bleak landscape, some days it would have been idyllic but you can imagine what it would have been like in the winter with a strong gale blowing."

He said the material would be transported from the site by horseback and in later years would have continued its journey using the canal network.

Baroness Andrews visited the site as part of a wider tour of partnership initiatives between English Heritage and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to protect the park's historic environment.

The 50,000 grant will help safeguard the future of the site.

Baroness Andrews explained: "This grant will allow the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to draw up a management plan aimed at giving the site a more sustainable future, whilst also carrying out emergency repairs to the monument's most vulnerable areas.

"Helping to safeguard the industrial archaeology of the Dales is one of our key priorities in the region and this grant will contribute to that goal."

Two years ago English Heritage carried out a wide assessment of the site. One option now being considered is to reinstate some of the historic water courses to allow surface water to drain away without eroding the landscape.

Today, the industrial remains play a new economic role as part of the tourism infrastructure of the Dales.

The National Park Authority, with the co-operation of the graziers of Grassington Moor and local landowners, has laid out a 4.5km self-guided trail over some of the more accessible and impressive mining remains on the moor.