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See also The Pudsays - Bowland - Henry V1
The Rimington Skelhorn Silver & Lead Mines
The Domesday Book shows that Skelhorn (or Skeleron) was a Manor of the Rimington district of Craven, Wapentake of Staincliffe, County of York. The seated Lords of the Manor of Skelhorn were the de Skelhorn family, branches of which survive today.
Within the Manor of Skelhorn (the name possibly meaning “the bare ridge”) is a relatively small complex of mines, situated off Stopper Lane, at map reference SD814452 (shown as Skeleron on modern maps). Stopper Lane runs from Rimington to the ancient parish of Twiston.
It is unclear when mining operations began at Rimington. Small-scale lead mining took place in the Bronze Age, the Romans increased the output as they used lead for lining their plumbing, such as baths and water conduits. In the 12th century the need for lead ore increased dramatically as the numbers of cathedrals, churches and castles proliferated. By the 16th century many of the silver mines had become uneconomical, the associated lead production proved the mainstay.
From Webster’s Metallographia:
There is a field called Skilhorn in the township of Rivington-within-Craven (Rimington) belonging to one Mr.Pudsay, an ancient esquire, and owner of Bolton Hall, juxta Bolland (Bolton-by-Bowland): who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, did get good store of silver-ore and convert it to his own use, or rather coined it as many do believe, there being many shillings marked with an escallop, which the people of that country call Pudsay shillings to this day.
But whether waysoever it was, he procured his pardon for it, and had it, as I am certified from the mouths of those who had seen it. While old Basby (a chemist) was with me, I procured some of the ore, which yielded after the rate of twenty-six pounds of silver per ton. Since then good store of lead has been gotten: the miners being so cunning, that if they meet with any vein that contains so much ore as will make it a myne royall, they will not discover it.
From Whitaker’s History of Craven:
The following papers, lately communicated to me from the evidence of the Pudsays, put the matter out of doubt:- Case of a myne royall. Although the gold or silver contained in the base metalls of a mine in the land of a subject be of less value than the baser metall, yet if gold and silver doe countervaile the charge of refining, or bee of more value than the baser metall spent in refining itt, this is a myne royall, and as wel the base metall as the gold and silver in it, belongs to the crown:-
Edward Herbert, Attorney-General
Oliver St.John, Solicitor-General
Orl. Bridgeman
Joh. Glanville
Jeoffrey Palmer
Tho. Lane
Jo. Maynard
Hdw. Hyde
J. Glynn
Harbottle Grimstone & Co
So favourable at that time were the opinions of the most constitutional lawyers (for such were the greater part of these illustrious names) to the perogative. But the law on this head has been very wisely altered by two statutes of William and Mary Blackstone, 1v, 295.
This showed a catch 22 situation whereby any profits that a silver or gold mine were capable of making would be due to the Crown. If the cost of refining turned out to be more excessive than the worth of any precious metal then the owners could market the product freely, but at a financial loss! This led to many miners and owners concealing the true output of precious metals so as to make their dangerous work worthwhile. The Skelhorn mine was no exception.
Old silver mines are usually associated with supernatural tales, for obvious reasons it would be in the owners interests to have people believe that the area was haunted to keep them away. The Skelhorn site was reputed to be haunted by an apparition known as The Grey Man. Also an old legend has it that the mine was occupied by small, goblin-like people who would only communicate with the mine owners. This was obviously a very convenient state of affairs for the people with a financial interest in the mines, especially those wishing to conceal their operations from the authorities.
In the time of Elizabeth 1st a Squire William Pudsay owned the Skelhorn silver mine, the lands at Skelhorn having been inherited as part of the Manor of Rimington from William de Rimington in 1331. William took possession of the mines when his father, Thomas Pudsay, died in York Castle where he had been imprisoned for his religious beliefs. William also inherited the estate of Bolton Hall, Bolton-by-Bowland, at this time the estate carried a large amount of debt due to the persecution of Thomas and his family. Because of this, William put the silver from his mine to the best use he could he minted his own coins. The Pudsay Mintwas famous throughout the area, the silver Pudsay shillings carried an escallop design and a few of these still survive in private collections. A cottage on the Bolton estate still bears the name of Mint Cottage.
Tradition has it that William met with some fairies in a wood and they gave him a magic bit for his horse, this gave the beast extra strength. They also told him of the site of a seam of silver at his mine. Queen Elizabeth was not happy with the fact that William was minting his own coinage and sent her officers to arrest him at Bolton Hall. William was supposed to have escaped by leaping his magic horse over the Ribble at a place now called Pudsay’s Leap, this is a spot where one bank of the river is much higher than the other, in an area between Bolton-by-Bowland and Sawley. William was actually Elizabeth’s Godson, this probably explains the fact that she pardoned him.
Willam Pudsay’s son and heir died before him, consequently Williams grandson, Ambrose Pudsay, inherited the Bolton and Rimington estates in 1629. Ambrose had been a Commander of Foot in the Royalist Army during the Civil War. He lost his estates when the Roundheads seized them and, although he regained them eventually, he was all-but ruined.
It would appear that the Skelhorn mine had not been worked for silver to any extent for quite a while (certainly not officially) as Ambrose petitioned the King to be allowed to mine silver again:- To the King’s most excellent Majestie. The humble petition of Ambrose Pudsay, Esq., sheweth that your petitioner having suffered much by imprisonment, plunder, &c,, for his bounden loyalty, and having many years concealed a myne royall, in Craven, in Yorkshire, prayeth a patent for digging and refining the same.
Ambrose received no reply from the King and the Rimington estate was mortgaged in 1668, never to return to Pudsay ownership.
Miners for precious metals were freed from the shackles of the Royal Mines act in the 17th century and silver mining operations at Skelhorn ceased in the 18th century. Mining for lead, and minerals, continued into the 20th century, exploration having been further carried out as recently as the late 20th century. The spoil heaps from the Rimington mine have been reworked fairly recently, along with most other defunct lead mines. This is for the purpose of the extraction of minerals that were considered as waste by the old miners although barytes was being recovered by the 1870s. This mineral has been much in demand during the 20th century as an anti-friction and coolant medium, being mainly used in the oil-drilling industry. Fluorite, another formerly unvalued mineral, is used as a flux for industrial furnaces.
On Rimington Moor, about one mile southeast of Skelhorn mine, is a hill called Bale Hill. This is next to a deep dike known as Tory Log Clough. Bale Hill appears to have been worked for some commercial purpose due to the roughness and pockmarking of the ground. The word Bale was actually used, in the middle-ages, to describe the refining areas of lead mines being a place where the spoil would be washed, crushed and even smelted. I have a theory that the word derives from the Saxon 'Bel', meaning 'head', which would equate with our modern 'pit-head' or on the surface of mining operations. Without any firm evidence I am guessing that this area of the moor could have been related to the mine workings. There is also the derivation of Bale whereby it could describe a beacon hill.
The 1826 1829 account book describes Rimington mine as Skelhorne Lead and Calamine Mine.
The Northern Mine Research Society holds the following records:
Leases of Skelhorn Mine, 1775, 1822, 1914.
Craven Herald & Pioneer "Rimington Mines", 1884-87, 92, & 93.
Extracts from Mining Journal, 1881, 85 - York and Lancaster United Mines Co. Ltd.
Field notes on Rimington Mine.
Lists of miners from the Rimington census returns,1841, 51, 61, 71 & 81.
Williamson, I.A. "The Skeleron or York and Lancaster Lead Mines", 1959,
pp.46-50.
Dickinson, J.M. "The Rimington Lead and Silver Mines", 1968, pp.21-22.
Public Record Office - BT31/2702/14554 - York and Lancaster United Mines Co. Ltd.
Skelhorn
Mine comments
1876-1893
Ownership
1876-1883 R.Baynes & Colville
1884-1888 York & Lancashire Mining Co.
1889-1893 York & Lancaster Mining Co.
Chief Agent
1876-1881 Baynes, R.
Employment
1877 28 20 8
1878 15 14 1
1879 2 2 0
Barytes production
1879 10.00 7.50
Lead production
1878 5.00 31.20
1879 1.20 12.80
Zinc production
1877 4.80 15.00
1878 5.70 16.50
I have searched the 1881 census and have not been able to find more than two miners in the Rimington district. This is born out by the above figures. In the first four months of 1877 the mine employed 28 people. In the same period of 1878 there were 15 workers and by 1879 there were 2. Presumably the lead industry was suffering the same fate as the other British ore-mining operations ie, South American and Australian imports. The output of ores and minerals appears to be inconsistent, this is possibly explained by the mine supplying zinc, barytes and lead as the market-forces dictated.
One of the workers on the 1881 census was a lead miner who came to Rimington from Cornwall in 1873. This date is significant because the Cornish tin mining industry had just passed through a relative boom in 1870 to 1872. The year 1873 marked the beginning of a fifty-year period of decline, depression and dereliction in the industry, mainly caused by the mass importation of white (refined) tin. The R.Baynes, co-owner of Skelhorn,1876-83, also owned the Pednandrea United mine in Cornwall, there is a strong possibility that he would bring the Cornish miner, mentioned above, from that area to work at Rimington.
Another lead miner, living in Rimington and listed in 1881, came from Shropshire, there were no local people mining at Skelhorn at that time.
Lead Mining
Lead mining was a powerful industry, the miners had their own guild and held their own courts. The conditions that the miners had to endure were, to say the least, unpleasant. As with all mining operations safety came a poor second to productivity, and therefore, profit. The miner would be paid on piece-work, which meant that the temptation to push shafts, before they were made safe, was very often too great. Fumes and dust from the ore extraction would usually knock between 9-15 years off a miner’s lifespan.
The ore smelting process was no less noxious, sulphur dioxide gases and air-bound lead played havoc with the smelt mill operatives long-term health. Earlier smelting would have taken place in the open where a beehive-shaped charcoal oven would have been used, this was possibly less dangerous than the more enclosed mill operation.
Women and young children would also be employed on the grass (on the surface) in the refining process, this meant that whole families would suffer long-term ill health. Because lead mines were usually situated at a distance from the nearest villages many miners had a long walk to, and from, work. In the Yorkshire Dales it was common for men to walk 6 miles from Grassington, on to the moor, in rain, hail, sleet and snow, do their twelve-hour shift, then walk home again. The miners at Rimington were more fortunate here as there were cottages near the mine and the village was not far away.
During the industrial revolution lead mining became more commercialised, more on the coal production method than the former piecemeal operations employed in ore production. Cheaper imports eventually made lead production unviable so the mine-owners decreased their workforce The remaining workers produced minerals that were previously unvalued, amongst these were barytes and fluorspar.
Ore
The lead ore content of the mined minerals is known as galena, besides lead there would be numerous metallic minerals including zinc, silver, mercury and copper ores. Besides the metallic ores there were minerals such as fluorite, barite and calcite, these are called gangue minerals and were not valued until the 19th century. Because of this mine spoil heaps were intensively reworked throughout the 20th century in search of the discarded (and by then, valuable) materials.
Modern geology informs us that the lead, and other ores, found in the pennine area is of the Permo-Carboniferous age. Very hot (+300C) salty water dissolved minerals at great depth beneath the earths surface. Eventually these mineral soups rose into the sedimentary rock layer, later still they rose to the surface and deposited their mineral loads within the rock fissures. Slowly these deposits precipitated from solution and formed the ore and mineral deposits we see today. Because of this process lead, at least in the pennines, is usually found in vertical seams although horizontal flat seams, or 'rakes' do occur.
The last commercial lead mining operations took place in the Yorkshire Dales, around the Grassington field, in the early 1980s.
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