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Smelt Houses
Smelt Houses - SE 192643

In the period 1446-58 Fountains Abbey accounts refer to a ‘smeltmyln’, which was probably at Smelt Houses, near Pateley Bridge. It did not replace the Abbey’s bales, however, and in 1455 William Hudson was paid for making a "sufflatorium pro le bales" (an iron tuyère?). The mill appears to have been closed by 1527 when Fountains agreed with Marmaduke Bayne & Co. to smelt at its Bishopside bales. As late as 1542, Robert Elles was paid for the carriage of 22 pieces of lead from his bale to Boroughbridge.


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