Silverband mine aerial ropeway, brake house and inclined plane

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1021009
Date first listed:: 06-Oct-2003

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1021009
Date first listed:: 06-Oct-2003

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Westmorland and Furness (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Milburn
National Grid Reference:: NY 69606 30860

Reasons for Designation

Approximately 10,000 lead industry sites are estimated to survive in England, spanning nearly three millennia of mining history from the later Bronze Age (c.1000 BC) until the present day, though before the Roman period it is likely to have been on a small scale. Two hundred and fifty one lead industry sites, representing approximately 2.5% of the estimated national archaeological resource for the industry, have been identified as being of national importance. This selection of nationally important monuments, compiled and assessed through a comprehensive survey of the lead industry, is designed to represent the industry's chronological depth, technological breadth and regional diversity.

Barytes is normally found as a vein mineral in association with lead. Economic deposits of barytes have been found in all the major lead orefields except the Mendips. The mining of barytes has not differed from contemporary mining of other vein minerals, hence the surface features largely parallel those of lead mining. The dominant period of barytes extraction was the late 19th and 20th centuries, thus barytes mines tend to be of a later date than most lead mines. Amongst other things barytes is used in paint manufacture, as a drilling lubricant, and as a filler in the cloth and paper industries.

Despite being dismantled in the early 1960s, Silverband Mine aerial ropeway remains the best surviving example of an aerial ropeway used in a metal-mining context in England. Together with its associated brake house and the earlier inclined plane, the monument illustrates well two differing constructional and operational methods of moving mineral ore across a rugged and hostile natural environment between the mine and the ore processing plant.

Details

The monument includes an approximately 1.75km length of Silverband mine aerial ropeway, an associated brake house, and the remains of an inclined plane located high on the south western slopes of Great Dun Fell. The aerial ropeway was used to transport ore from Silverband Mine at over 700m, down the steep fellside to the ore processing works at Milburn Grange approximately 5km away. Part of the earlier inclined plane, down which ore-filled trucks ran on rails, runs parallel to the aerial ropeway.

Lead mining started in this area of Cumbria during the 14th century. During the 19th century the London Lead Company worked Silverband Mine periodically for galena, a sulphide of lead. There was a small amount of barytes, a sulphate of the barium mineral, mined here between 1914-18, but productivity increased dramatically when the La Porte Chemical Company took over in 1939. Almost immediately the aerial ropeway was installed using buckets suspended from cables which passed over two different types of metal pylon. Between 1939 and 1963 a staggering 215,000 tons (211,603 tonnes) of dressed barytes ore was produced at Silverband. After closure of the mine in the 1960s the aerial ropeway was dismantled. The mine reopened in the 1970s and an ore procesing mill was built adjacent. It is worked periodically to the present day.

At least 17 iron pylons supported the aerial ropeway on its descent of the steep fellside and these are described in descending order. At NY70143155 only the base of the pylon remains in situ. It has been twisted as though attempts have been made to rip it out of the ground. Remains of an external ladder are still attached. A pylon standing virtually to its full height but minus its wheel arrangement stands at NY70073146 at the top of an earlier spoil tip. At NY70023139 a pylon has been toppled; it originally stood about 6.5m high and has a base of 1.6 sq m. Only one of its wheels survives. At NY69963131 is another toppled pylon of the same design as the previous one which has four of its wheels attached. At NY69933127 there is another toppled pylon of the same design but with a slightly wider base. It appears to have been dragged away from its original location. At NY69913131 there is a stone-revetted pylon base up to five courses high upon which remain the stumps of two sawn off pylon legs. At NY69853118 there is metal pylon base measuring 1.3 sq m. At NY69753105 there is another metal pylon base, this one slightly larger than the previous one and set in a rough rectangular stone base. At NY69683096 there is a toppled pylon with a ladder along one side and three wheels remaining. At NY69573082 there is a pylon base consisting of a rough stone-lined hollow approximately 2.5 sq m. At NY69523075 there is a large toppled pylon originally about 10m high with an external ladder and four wheels. It lies adjacent to a substantial stone-revetted rectangular pylon base measuring 6m by 2.5m and up to nine courses high. At NY69493070 there are the remains of a concrete-floored, single storey, stone-built brake house associated with the aerial ropeway. The brake house consisted of only two walls, the north and south. The north wall survives up to roof height and has a small square extension still partly roofed in corrugated metal sheeting. There are small windows in the extension's east and west walls and a fireplace in its north wall. The south wall partly stands to roof height, the remainder of it has fallen outwards. The floor of the building contains at least seven concrete blocks, each flush with the floor and containing sawn off bolts while immediately to the west of the brake house are two more concrete blocks with sawn off bolt holes. West of this is a flat-topped grass-covered mound of crushed ore about 12m long by 4m wide of unknown function. At NY69453067 there is the site of a pylon now represented by the stumps of four sawn off legs barely visible in the vegetation. At NY69433064 is the most complete and best preserved of all the pylons. It is of a different design than the others higher up the fellside being Y-shaped in elevation. It stands on a stone and concrete base five courses high. The pylon is 3m high and has all eight wheels remaining. At NY69353053 there is another well-preserved pylon; this being about 3m tall and T-shaped in elevation with an external ladder and four wheels. At NY69303047 there is the lower part of a pylon standing up to 1.5m high with remains of an external ladder. At NY69263039 there are two concrete bases 4m apart each with a sawn off central bolt hole which may have formed part of another pylon base. In enclosed land at NY69193032 there is a pylon base consisting of concrete blocks each containing sawn off bolt holes. At NY69113023 there is the stone and concrete base of a shed which accommodated a workman who oversaw the progress of the buckets on the ropeway, whilst at NY69073017, at the base of the fellside a short distance north of Knock Ore Gill, there is the stone base of a pylon up to three courses high and about 2.8 sq m.

A short distance from the brake house, at NY69483066, there is a rectangular concrete raft measuring 5m by 2m which has three iron rails bolted to it. It is interpreted as the upper part of an inclined plane down which ore was transported in tubs which ran along the rails. The course of the inclined plane can be followed steeply downhill for about 230m and is visible in places as a hollow up to 2.5m wide and 1m deep or as a substantial stone embankment up to 5m wide and 1m high depending upon the terrain over which it passes. At its lowest point the inclined plane appears to terminate abruptly and it is not currently known how the ore continued the remainder of its journey.

A drystone wall which crosses the monument is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 34997
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Minor Metals Industries Step 4 Report, Silverband Mine Aerial Ropeway,

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.