| Summary : The remains of three post medieval alum quarries at Sandsend. Alum was principally used in the textile industry as a fixing agent for clothing dyes. It was also used by tanners to produce supple leather. After the shale had been quarried it was then heaped into large mounds, fired and left to smoulder for up to nine months. The shale was then tipped into leaching tanks where it was left to soak in water. The solution, containing aluminium sulphate was then drained off and ran along stone or wooden conduits known as liquor troughs to the alum house. Here the water was boiled away from the solution in evaporating pans. An alkali, derived from human urine or burnt kelp, was added to cause precipitation of the alum crystals. The crystals were then bagged and transported for sale. The burnt shale left in the leaching pits was either disposed of nearby to form enormous shale tips or thrown in to the sea. Quarrying at Sandsend moved from south to north along the coastal cliffs. The earliest quarry was Gaytrees, opened in 1733, followed by Ness End and finally Deep Grove. The quarry probably contains significant archaeological remains of buildings, pits, cisterns and parts of the wooden liquor trough also survive within a rock cut channel. From 1811 to 1933 cementstone was also mined within the quarries. The Middlesborough to Whitby railway was being constructed through the disused alum quarries by 1874. |
More information : NZ 859138. Alum quarries at Sandsend Ness in operation from c1613 - 1880. Remains clearly visible. The alum house was on the site of Sandsend station at NZ 860 129 (NZ 81 SE 496). (1)
The monument includes remains of the alum quarries and associated features on the coastal cliffs north of Sandsend. As well as the quarries, the monument also includes structures used for initial processing and transport of the alum. There are three discrete quarries within the monument, extending northwards along the coast for 1km. The earliest quarry, which was working from 1733, was the closest to Sandsend at Gaytrees. The other two, at Ness End and Deep Grove, were excavated later as the extraction progressed along the coast. The quarries were cut into the east and north east-facing coastal cliffs where alum bearing shales were exposed. Once the cliffs were cut back, processing of the alum was carried out on the enlarging quarry floors. The first stage of processing was calcination, remains of which survive as areas of burnt shale, particularly on the sea edge of the central quarry. The next stage was
steeping which occurred in stone lined pits, some of which survive throughout the quarry floor. A mid-19th century map shows steeping pits located in the Deep Grove quarry. In the later use of the site the raw liquor thus produced was stored and then sent to the nearby alum house by timber channels known as liquor troughs, part of which survive within a stone tunnel. Remains of other structures such as workshops, offices, stores and a laboratory survive on the
quarry floor. Remains of other structures are thought to survive below ground level.
At the the northern quarry, Deep Grove, cement stone was also extracted from mines and processed at a mill south of Sandsend. Cement stone was mined from 1811 to 1933 and overlapped the last 50 or so years of alum production. A now disused railway line was built through the length of the monument after the quarries went out of use. This was the Middlesborough to Whitby line which was completed in 1883 and closed in 1958. Embankments, cuttings and supporting walls associated with the railway still survive within the monument.
A number of features are excluded from the scheduling; these are the surface of the old railway line and the trail markers; although the ground beneath these features is included. (2)
The remains of post medieval alum quarry is visible as earthworks on air photographs, centred at NZ 8582 1376. (3)
The remains of three post medieval alum quarries at Sandsend. Alum was principally used in the textile industry as a fixing agent for clothing dyes. It was also used by tanners to produce supple leather. Quarrying at Sandsend moved from south to north along the coastal cliffs. The earliest quarry was Gaytrees, opened in 1733, the next Ness End and the last Deep Grove; Deep Grove closed before 1874. The quarry probably contains significant archaeological remains of buildings, pits, cisterns and parts of the wooden liquor trough also survive within a rock cut channel. From 1811 to 1933 cementstone was also mined within the quarries. The Middlesborough to Whitby railway was being constructed through the disused alum quarries by 1874. (4-5)
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