Looking upstream from where Bolton Gill joins Hebden Beck, three mine shafts are located behind the left hand wall.Last week I had the opportunity to visit some of the abandoned industrial sites along Hebden Beck in rural upper Wharfedale.
An office and store overlooking the dressing floor where ores were cleaned and concentrated ready for smelting.The area was extensively mined until the late 19th/early 20th for lead (galena, lead (II) sulphide) and zinc (sphalarite, a sulphide ore of zinc that also contains iron). The geology is such that, although not mined, there would be cadmium present in the form of greenockite.
Charger Level. Begun about 1863 to cut the Beever vein in the bearing grit this level only found a poor vein full of clay.The areas of mining spoil are still so barren, even after 100 years, that they look to have been deposited yesterday.
Cottages near the smelt mill that was built in 1858 by the Hebden Moor Mining Company.
