English Heritage has pledged £50,000 to help safeguard one of the nation’s most important historic lead mining ruins in the Yorkshire Dales.

The move was revealed yesterday (4 August) by English Heritage Chair Baroness Andrews, who was visiting Grassington Moor, Grassington, as part of a wider tour of partnership initiatives between English Heritage and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) to protect the park’s historic environment.

Grassington Moor was a major lead working centre from the 17th to the 19th centuries and is now a scheduled ancient monument. Almost uniquely, the 2.5 square kilometre site spans the development from small scale workings of individual mines to a major industrial landscape. The spoil heaps were also reworked in the 20th century for important minerals, such as barites, used in the production of paints, barium meals and a heavy mud for drilling oil wells.

However, this remarkable Yorkshire Dales site has suffered from serious water erosion in recent years, exacerbated by heavy rain fall, with road maintenance and removal of mine waste adding to its problems. Because of these concerns, English Heritage placed the monument on its Heritage at Risk Register.

Baroness Andrews explained: “The Yorkshire Dales was one of England’s great lead mining areas and it is an important chapter in the history of this stunning part of the country. This grant will allow the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to draw up a management plan aimed at giving the site a more sustainable future, whilst also carrying out emergency repairs to the monument’s most vulnerable areas. Helping to safeguard the industrial archaeology of the Dales is one of our key priorities in the region and this grant will contribute to that goal.”

Surviving remains on Grassington Moor include a network of shafts, waste mounds, dressing floors, a smelting mill with a vertical chimney and 1.7 kms of ground level flues as well as water-management features and interconnecting mine roads.

Two years ago English Heritage carried out a wide assessment of the site prompted by fears for its future. One option now being considered is to reinstate some of the historic water courses to allow surface water to drain away without eroding the landscape.

Neil Redfern, English Heritage North Yorkshire Team Leader, said: “The Yorkshire Dales has a reputation as one of the greenest and most idyllic parts of England. But in part it’s also a very industrial landscape and nowhere more so than Grassington Moor with its lead mining heritage. This is a very special place. You can actually stand in exactly the same spot as 17th century men, women and children who toiled amidst a horseshoe of rubble, sorting and breaking lead ore out of stone. Lead mining was a tough way to make a living and conditions were often appalling.”