New Shaft at Merryfield Hole
© Copyright Tom Knapp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
The minerals on the north side of the beck, in Stonebeck Down, belonged to the Yorke family, and those on the south, in Bewerley, to the Whites.
Except for the very deepest levels at Providence Mine, which were in limestone, all the workings were in sandstones and shale.
Merryfield Mine, in Stonebeck Down, was worked from deep whim shafts and drained by a series of ever deeper levels (College, Storey & Yorke) driven from the beck. The last shaft, at Merryfield Hole, had a small steam engine for pumping water up to Storey Level.
Providence Mine and its neighbour Prosperous, both in Bewerley, were on the Merryfield Vein which has crossed the beck. The former was pumped by a steam engine and the latter by waterwheels fixed underground in a shaft near the smelt mill. Both mines were practically worked out by the 1840s.
Further up the beck are a number of short levels driven to try Goodham Syke Vein. Except near Stoney Groves, however, this persistent vein carried little ore. The Low Stoney Groves area was being worked in the early 18th century, but in the 1850s a deeper shaft, pumped by a waterwheel, was sunk to try the vein. Some ore was found and a fine dressing floor, with circular buddle, was built nearby.
At High Stoney Groves, 600 metres to the west, another deep shaft was fitted with a steam engine in the 1880s, when a set of bouse teams was also built. This mine was linked to Low Stoney dressing floors by a railway.
See: Gill, M.C. The Greenhow Mines (British Mining No.60, 1998)
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