Cockhill Mill 1906
Bewerley – SE 115649
This compact mill, which was built by Cleaver & Co., who leased the mine around 1782, worked until the 1890s.
It is usually shown with two ore-hearths and a roasting furnace. Nevertheless, one of the hearths must either have been a slag-hearth, or have been capable of being converted to one.
Each hearth had its own flue, which ran to two chimneys on the hill, about 40 and 60 metres respectively, behind the mill. The further one, shown on a plan dated August 1804, was in ruins by 1905. The chimney nearer the mill had become unstable and was demolished in 1959.
Two plans of Cockhill Mill have been published. The first, by Robert Clough, was measured in the 1950s, and the second, by G.M. & R.J. Davies, was surveyed in 1966. The reader’s attention is drawn to significant variations in these interpretations of the site.
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
