Hi List,
Please find below a copy of a letter to Richmondshire Council in
Yorkshire about a proposal to convert a disused building, at
NZ406608502505, to a dwelling.
I was told about the application (1/4/57/FULL) on Friday and
discovered that it is for the mine shop at Pryes Level. I’m sorry that it
doesn't give much time, but any comment that you might wish to make
on the application must be with the Council by August 10th.
August 6th 2000
Planning and Development Unit,
Springwell House,
Frenchgate,
RICHMOND
North Yorkshire
DL10 4JG
Dear Sirs,
Re: Planning Application 1/4/57/FULL
I understand that this is a proposal to convert a disused building, at
NZ406608502505, to a dwelling and so I am writing, on the
Society’s behalf, to draw the importance of this site to your attention.
The building in question is the shop at Pryes Lead Mine, which would
have typically contained an office, store and a blacksmith’s forge. It
has never been a house.
Lead was being mined around Hurst in the monastic period (11th to
16th centuries), but it is likely that the Romans and Anglo-Saxons
mined there too. The history of the mines has been described in a
number of books, of which the one by Les Tyson – A History of the
Manor and Lead Mines of Marrick, Swaledale (Sheffield: Northern
Mine Research Society, British Mining No.38, 1989) – is the most
detailed.
The shop was built in 1859, when Pryes Level was driven from the
confluence of Pryes and Shaw becks. This level, which was the
deepest one serving the mines around Hurst, was planned by Captain
John Harland. He was the mine manager and agent for the estate of
the Morley family, which owned most of the land and the minerals in
that area. Harland is also famous for his work on recording the local
dialect, including a nationally acclaimed glossary of Swaledale words,
and for penning a poem on the Bartle Fair at Reeth. From 1864
Pryes Level had an underground engine house in which a hydraulic
engine (using the pressure developed by a column of water, rather
than steam, to drive the pistons) pumped water and lifted rock from a
270 foot deep underground shaft. As the mine grew, ore storage
bins, called bouse teams, and dressing floors were built on the south
side of the beck and mine spoil was tipped down the north side. Two
stone-arched bridges gave access to the site. Pryes Level was
abandoned in the early 1870s, but was reopened between 1937 and
1939 during an attempt to mine lead and chert (a siliceous rock used
in pottery making).
Because its location is hidden, the Pryes Mine complex has survived
remarkably well. It is a site of great character and has, at minimum, a
regionally important group value demonstrating, as it does, the miners’
ability to use such a very constricted site and develop their workings
within it. Because it has not been disturbed, it is likely that a great
deal of very fragile archaeology remains. This would include large
quantities of timber, used for water courses and parts of the dressing
equipment, which are likely to be destroyed by trenching for drains
and other services. There is also a danger that such works would
disturb old lead dressing wastes, which have been sealed by later
soils, leading to pollution of the surface and adjoining stream. The
bridges giving access to the site have both been seriously damaged
and experience elsewhere has shown that replacing them with a
concrete ‘water splash’ often leads to scouring of the banks.
I am not clear what level of official protection this building has, but
Richmondshire Council should seriously consider making a spot listing
of it. This would mean that, if the planning committee was minded to
allow this application, it would be possible to impose strict conditions
in order to retain the site’s integrity. These should include a detailed
archaeological survey and supervision, the absolute minimum of
alteration to the exterior of the building, and no landscaping work (for
gardens, hard standing for vehicles etc).
Yours faithfully,
Michael Gill
President and Recorder
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Mike Gill
President and Recorder of the NORTHERN MINE RESEARCH SOCIETY
Britain's foremost mining history society at:-
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~RBurt/MinHistNet/NMRS.html
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