Walden Mill 1905 – Copyright © NMRS Records
Burton cum Walden – SE 019854
This, the first known mill in Wensleydale, was working by 1684 and was the only mill on the south side of the valley.
It is shown on Jeffrey’s map of 1773 but is described as “Old Smelt Mill” on the first edition O.S. 1/10560 sheet.
According to Dr Raistrick, however, it was refurbished in the 1847 to smelt ore from the Braithwaite, West Burton and Bishopdale Gavel Mines. The flue was added then.
Dr Raistrick also dated the mill’s closure to 1870, but the mines supplying it were all closed two or three years earlier.
Further information and references can be found in:
- Gill, M.C. Yorkshire Smelting Mills Part 1, Northern Mine Research Society Memoirs 1992, British Mining No 45, pp 111-150
