Buckden High Mill 1974 – Copyright © NMRS Records
Buckden – SD 954781
Sometimes also called the Out Moor Mill, this mill had one ore-hearth, which was also used for smelting slag. In January 1697/8, a lease of the Blew Groves Mine, on Buckden Gavel, stipulated that the ore was to be smelted at the Earl of Burlington’s Grassington (Low) mill. Nevertheless, Buckden High Mill was built very soon afterwards.
It was in a very inconvenient place and appears to have given problems because it was rebuilt in 1704/5 and was closed by 1717, when smelting was transferred to the Buckden Low Mill. Between September 1732 and September 1733, some of the hearth stones were taken from the High to the Low Mill. The former was then described as “the Old Mill, on the Out Moor”. It must be stressed that this mill served mines near the boundary with Bishopdale and not the nearby level, which was not driven until 1804.
Buckden High Mill was excavated by members of the Northern Cavern & Mine Research Society in 1974, and a report was published in British Mining. Objects found (including a hearth bottom and side stone, both of iron, and a gritstone pipestone) are on display at the Earby Mines Museum.
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
