Grinton lead smelt mill. N.B. Narrative and pictures are as of the times when the pictures were originally added (mostly 1997 to 2004). In 2021, things may look different; conditions, tracks and rights of way may have changed. Click on the Home button for more explanation. In mid June 1998, we that is John Archbold, Rod Ayres and Robin Johnstone, made a trip into "the Dales" with a mission to seek out the Grinton and also the Cobscar lead smelt mills. The day was fine without being hot so the conditions were at their best for walking on the moorland. How we got to the Grinton smelt mills. At Grinton in Swaledale, head for Leyburn to the South-East. After only about a mile, the road turns left at a bridge over Cogden Beck. Just after this, on your right, is a wide opening. That is where we parked. The smelt mill comes into view after only a short walk. Around the mill. We found the Grinton site to be the best Dales' site to visit to gain an understanding of the functions of a lead smeltery complex. The smelt mill itself is the best preserved. There is a preserved peat store. There is a flue built on the hillside. The earthworks for dams are still evident in the valley. Shown below, is part of the now incomplete flue. Like the smelter and peat store, it has been preserved. The picture shows that mortar has been used to point the broken ends and so halt the disintegration. The flue drew the fumes from the smelter. The poisonous and corrosive gases were expelled at a square vertical chimney sited on the moor top. Only the foundations of the chimney remain. There was some residual lead in the fumes which left the hearths. Much of this residual lead was deposited on the flue's surfaces and could be rccovered by sweeping the flue. After leaving the smelt mill (bottom building), the flue followed the wall of the peat store (edge-on building). Presumably this arrangement would have warmed the wall and could have helped to keep the peat dry. In the first picture on this page, the position once occupied by the flue along the peat store can be seen (where the stone is a lighter colour). The picture here shows one of the many access and inspection hatches in the flue. In the picture below, John is seen standing by Bolton Gill. It would have been the suitability of the gill to provide water power, which would have decided the original siting of the complex. The smelt mill is the nearer building. The missing part of the flue would, after it left the smelter, have gone upwards to skirt the far side of the peat store on the left of the picture. Then it would have met the piece of flue pictured in this page. Inside Grinton Mill. Grinton Mill stands by Cogden Beck. Water from higher up the beck was once led in an overhead aqueduct to an overshot water wheel inside the smelt mill. The wheel has gone. The wheel would have driven the blower forcing the fires in the smelting hearths. The support frame for the blower was still in place. The mill holds the crown for being the best preserved of the Dales' lead smelt mills. The sites of two of the three hearths are still well defined in the mill. The Dales Mines Preservation Society has put a lot of effort into restoring and pointing. Shown below are the remains of an ore hearth (left of picture) showing the entry to the internal part of the flue (top of picture). The upright frame shown in pictures below, led Arthur Raistrick to suggest that the blower for the hearths had at some time been a patented system such as a Vaughan's Blower, a large upright cylindrical air pump. However, the subsequent belief was that this was never the case but that bellows were used to blow the hearths. Below: The overhead launder which carried the water into the smelter to work the overshot water wheel. The launder entry seen from outside the building. Returning to the outside. It looks as though the water supply (to the water wheel which worked the smelter's blower) was channelled here. The water had to be channelled from higher up Cogden Beck and enter at height to work the overshot wheel. The depression, at the back of the peat house, turns to your right and lines up with the launder entry point in the mill wall opposite. There is a wealth of evidence of former earthworks around Grinton smelter. From the east side of the valley, you can see earthworks and dams. Some areas are still wet enough to support stands of reeds, suggesting that they were once the sites of reservoirs. A vertical shaft near the large dam. When we came across this in Summer 2000, we were mystified as to its purpose and assumed it had ventilated Devis Hole mine in the vicinity. Barry Jones put us right on this. The original entrance to Devis is collapsed and the shaft pictured here had been created recently and is used to access and research the mine.There are many ancient workings to be seen on the moor top to the west of Grinton Mill. A particularly regularly defined raised lip, on which John is sitting in this picture, surrounds this working on the moor-top. It looks like it is the surface remains of an early bell pit, which has collapsed. Link to the page on the Keldside Smelt Mill >>>