Yorkshire Smelting Mills

A larger scale map of the Old Gang & Surrender Mills

The following smelt mills and bale sites do not appear on the map:

• Anglezarke
• Applegarth
• Baalcrags
• Balebank
• Beamsley
• Bishopdale
• Dunnockshaw
• Partner’s
• Proctors
• Scriven
• Smelthouses
• Thieveley

EARLY SMELTING SITES

Bales, which were wind blown hearths, built on exposed hillsides, have been recognised throughout the Pennines, where there is also much place-name evidence for them. There is, however, an interesting and as yet unexplained difference between Derbyshire, where they are called Boles, and the north, where they are always called Bale or a variant of it (Bail, Bayle, Baal etc.). Lawrence Barker, who made a pioneering survey of bales in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, reported a radiocarbon date of AD 1464 +/- 25 years for charcoal associated with one of the Calver bales. Bales were widely used until the late sixteenth century, when they were replaced by smelt mills with ore-hearths.

A few early smelt mills are recorded elsewhere, but none are known in the area being studied until the late sixteenth century, when mills were built at Marrick and Clints, in Marske. There have been at least 37 mills in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, plus seven others in Wensleydale, and three copper mills at Middleton Tyas. It is also possible that a few early mills remain unrecognised on the eastern fringe of the lead mining area. For example, the base of an ore-hearth was found at Downholme, where no mill is known.

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