Ian,
I'm copying this, with the original message in full below, to the
Arch-metals list as I'm sure there will be members there with an interest in
the experimental work.
A couple of questions -
You say that 'what is now heather moorland ... must have been wooded in the
middle ages'. Is there anything in the paleoenvironmental record, e.g.
pollen analysis, to support that claim ?
Charcoal production in upper Teesdale could also have been relevant to the
processing of silver-bearing ores in the Northern Pennines in the late
medieval period. Have Gledhill and Nichol published the results of their work ?
Peter
>Eighteen months ago, the Friends of Killhope helped finance an important
>piece of archaeological field survey work in upper Teesdale, County Durham,
>England. The work, by Tom Gledhill and Ros Nichol, mapped significant
>remains of a medieval iron industry, including an opencut working for iron
>ore, a number of bloomery sites and a vast number of charcoal pits - all on
>what is now heather moorland, but which must have been wooded in the middle
>ages. Charcoal making in pits is known in Scandinavia, but in the UK
>charcoal making on platforms was the norm. To test the methodology of
>charcoal making and small scale iron-making, Tom and Ros have already
>carried out (eventually successfully) one trial charcoal burn in a pit at
>Killhope Lead Mining Museum in Weardale, County Durham. This weekend
>(24th - 26th May) they will be undertaking another charcoal burn, and they
>will use the charcoal from both burns in an attempt to make an iron bloom in
>an experimental bloomery reconstruction on July 5th. This smelting
>experiment, using ore from Florence mine, will also take place at Killhope.
>Both events, and particularly the iron smelt, should be interesting.
>Anyone is welcome to come along to both events.
>Ian Forbes, Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum
>
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
(Centre for South Western Historical Studies)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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