Grassington Moor
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NAA SURVEY AND EXCAVATION REPORT Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd Marwood House Harmire Enterprise Park Barnard Castle Co. Durham DL12 8BN t: 01833 690800 f: 01833 690801 e: [email protected] w: www.naa.gb.com GRASSINGTON MOOR on behalf of Project No.: 10 14 Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority Text: Paul G Johnson and Stuart Ross Illustrations: Giles McFarland and Dawn Knowles Edited by: Richard Fraser Approved by: Tania Simpson NAA 13/71 May 2013 NAA Document Authorisation Project name Grassington Structures Project number Report title Grassington Moor, Survey and Excavation Report 1014 Report No . 13/71 Version Date Filename NAA_1014_Rpt_13-71_SBR.pdf v.1 20.05.13 Description Survey and Excavation Prepared by Edited by Approved by Name Paul G Johnson Richard Fraser Tania Simpson This document has been approved for release by: ..…… ………………….………. GRASSINGTON MOOR SURVEY AND EXCAVATION REPORT Summary 1 1.0 Introduction 1 2.0 Location, topography and geology 1 3.0 Archaeological background 2 4.0 Aims and objectives 3 5.0 Methodology 3 6.0 Results 4 7.0 Discussion 21 8.0 Site archive 23 9.0 Conclusion and recommendations 23 References 24 SURVEY AND EXCAVATION REPORT Summary Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd (NAA) were commissioned by The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) to undertake a programme of historic building survey, and other investigative archaeological works, on structures associated with the lead mining complex at Grassington Moor, North Yorkshire (centred on SE 670 025). A large proportion of this site is a Scheduled Monument (SM 31331). The archaeological works were undertaken in advance of emergency repairs to some of the structures within the complex, and a watching brief was maintained during consolidation works to a raised causeway over rod tunnels linking Coalgrove Head Mine with the High Winding House water-wheel. The fieldwork for the project was undertaken at various times in May and July 2011, and during June and July 2012. The objectives of the project were primarily to provide a pre-intervention record of those parts of the monument which had not previously been surveyed or which had only been surveyed in plan. These included the bridge over Coalgrove Beck and the raised causeway. However, intrusive archaeological works were also undertaken on two sections of collapsed flue leading from the smelt mill to the chimney; a former maintenance access point in the same flue and a blocked section of flue adjacent to the base of the chimney itself. These works were also undertaken to provide a pre-intervention record of the structures in advance of consolidation works, and to recover any stratified artefactual material which may assist in the dating of the construction and use of the flue. A watching brief was also maintained during the controlled clearance of the retaining walls of the raised causeway. It was undertaken to determine the nature and condition of two rod tunnels and provide information on the detail of the construction of the causeway itself. It is considered that this archaeological programme has provided a full record, so far as was practicable, of the structures in question prior to the emergency works. The site archive, comprising all of the drawn, photographic and descriptive records of the works undertaken during the course of the project will be deposited with the Yorkshire Dales Museum in Hawes. Grassington Moor: Survey and Excavation Report 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd (NAA) were commissioned by The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) to undertake a programme of historic building survey, and other minor archaeological works on structures associated with the lead mining complex at Grassington Moor, North Yorkshire, a large proportion of which is a Scheduled Monument (SM 31331, centred on SE 670 025). The works were undertaken in advance of emergency repair works, in accordance with a specification supplied by the YDNPA (White 2011), and a methods statement prepared by NAA (NAA 2011). 1.2 The structures examined during the course of this study comprised several elements of the flue leading from the remains of the cupola mill to the chimney; the causeway bridging two rod tunnels connecting former machinery at Coalgrove Head Mine with the High Winding House water-wheel; and parts of the bridge carrying the Duke of Devonshire’s New Road across Coalgrove Beck near the cupola mill. 1.3 The report describes the locations of the works and their environs, and the methodology used in undertaking the survey and other archaeological works. The historic background and the development of the site have been summarised elsewhere (Gill 1993, LUAU 1993 and Ainsworth and Burn 2009) and it is considered that further repetition of those studies is not required here. 1.4 The fieldwork was undertaken at various times in May and July 2011, and during June and July 2012. 2.0 LOCATION, TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY 2.1 Grassington is located in Upper Wharfedale and is situated on the north bank of the River Wharfe (Figure 1). The uplands to the north-east of the town reach elevations of c. 550m OD and the of the current works were undertaken in an area formerly known as the Out Moor which comprises some 800 ha of common enclosed by the Moor Wall (Gill 1993, 8). The Out Moor presently consists of rough pasture, heath and substantial areas of former lead mining remains, and is predominantly used for grazing, shooting and other recreational purposes. 2.2 The solid geology of the Grassington area comprises Namurian Millstone Grits and Tournasian and Visean Limestones of the Carboniferous period (IGS 1977). The bedrock to the east of the river comprises millstone grits (Grassington Grit) overlying rock formations of the Yoredale series. It was from the lower levels of the Grassington Grits, the Bottom or Bearing Grit, that the majority of the lead ore mined at Grassington was won (Gill 1993, 11). The drift geology of the area, where present, comprises a mixture of boulder clay and morainic drift, peat, and glacial sands and gravels (IGS 1979). The soils of Grassington Moor largely consist of the raw oligo-fibrous peat soils of the Winter Hill association, ©Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd on behalf of YDNPA 1 Grassington Moor: Post-Excavation Report and the strongly gleyed soils of the Wilcocks 1 association (SSEW 1980, Jarvis et al 1983, 312 and 307). 3.0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND 3.1 Grassington has been a privately owned liberty from the Norman Conquest onwards. The Manor of Grassington was originally part of the Percy Fee, later sold to the De Plumpton family who, in turn, sold half to the 2nd Earl of Cumberland, and half to his brother. The halves were reunited, through marriage, by George Clifford, the 3rd Earl of Cumberland. 3.2 However, the first record of a connection between lead mining and Grassington dates to 1456 (King et al nd 19) when the monks of Fountains Abbey seem to have been working a smelt mill in the area (Morrison 1998, 118). The connection may be circumstantial, and a combination of two factors. The record is actually that of an individual from Grassington selling lead ore to Fountains Abbey, and there is place-name evidence (one Bayle Hill at Yarnbury, and another Bale Hill in the Hebden Liberty which was considered to be part of Grassington until the 18th century) to suggest the former presence of wind- blown furnaces, or ‘bales’, in the area (Gill 1993, 12). If true, lead production in this period may have been a small-scale enterprise, undertaken to satisfy local needs, and up until about 1607 the veins of Lea Green pastures were only worked by about six to eight families (Spence 1992, 168). 3.3 By the early 1600s, the Earls of Cumberland, particularly Earl George Clifford and his brother Francis, the 4th earl, began the systematic exploitation of the mineral resources on the family estates, including Grassington (ibid 157, 168). A new smelt mill, the Low Mill, had been constructed by 1606 on the River Wharfe, and by 1607 miners from Derbyshire arrived in the area, attracted by the accompanying increase in production of ore (ibid 170). By the 1630s the mines of Grassington were well established and well regulated, and profitable. A second smelt mill was subsequently constructed, the High Mill, which was located beside Coalgrove Beck on the High Moor. This is first mentioned in 1637 ( ibid 174), and its construction appears to have been the result of a need for continuity of production were the Low Mill to require maintenance, or repair as a result of the flooding of the River Wharfe. 3.4 A collapse in the profits of the lead industry occurred in the early 1650s, partly as a result of the English Civil War in the preceding decade, but mainly because of a two year stoppage in production resulting from the miners’ objections to an increase in the price of timber for use in the mines, and a levy which amounted to one-third of all of the smelted lead placed upon them. The profitability of the enterprise was largely restored by the late 1650s due to further investment, and a change in the way the miners were regulated ( ibid 181) under the ownership of the Earl of Burlington (King et al nd 20). 3.5 Ownership of the interests in the Grassington industry changed again in the later decades of the 18th century when lead mining and processing in the area ©Northern Archaeological Associates Ltd on behalf of YDNPA 2 Grassington Moor: Post-Excavation Report became linked with the Dukes of Devonshire. The mines had become nearly exhausted by the 1790s, and this prompted the Devonshires to invest considerable sums into the industry.