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.
Further information and references can be found in:
- Gill, M.C. Yorkshire Smelting Mills Part 2, Northern Mine Research Society Memoirs 1993, British Mining No 48, pp 132-151
