Description and History of Site:-
The Lords of the Manor of Kilnsey and owners of the minerals there were the Tennant family of Chapel House, Kilnsey.

They had no smelt mill there until c1729, probably preferring to take their lead ore over Mastiles Lane to Lambert's smelt mill at Malham as it was more convenient than either Kettlewell or Grassington mills.

The closure of Malham mill and the addition of the joint Lordship of the nearby Hawkswick Liberty with the Grassington Mineral Lord may have encouraged Tennant to build his own mill at Kilnsey.
The mill was working by August 1729 when the Grassington Barmaster recorded the ''carriage of 7 loads of coal to Kilnsey smelt mill at 4d per load''. There was little peat in Kilnsey so the mill must have burnt chop-wood mixed with a little coal. The only nearby decent sized wood is in the grounds of Tennant's Chapel House in which Dr Raistrick found a chop-wood kiln.

The 1847-8 Ordnance Survey map still shows the building as a smelt mill but smelting stopped there around 1827. The mill was converted to a dwelling but mining still continued. Between 1852 and 1862 the seven Kilnsey lead mines either side of Mastiles Lane produced just over 27 tons of ore, only a small quantity but provided employment to a small number of men, some of whom dressed their ore at the top of the shafts whilst others used a small dressing floor near the head of Howgill at NGR SD950 680.

After 1827 ore from Kilnsey Liberty was smelted at Grassington (see NYK01670) between 1831-53, Starbotton (see NYK01809) from 1852-62 and Kettlewell (see NYK01787) in 1872.

Further Reading and References:-
British Mining No 49, The Wharfedale Mines, Northern Mines Research Society, M.C.Gill pp82-83

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Key Words :- lead smelt mill

Address :- Kilnsey, Skipton, North Yorkshire
Grid Ref :- SD 97251 67694
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.105124 , Long -2.043537
Local Authority :- North Yorkshire Council
Pre 1974 County :- orkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site refurbished to residential housing
Site Dates :- c1729 - c1827
Contributor :- Andrew Garford - 13 February 2021

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Andrew Garford