Eskdaleside New Alum Works |
| Hob Uid: 1455838 | |
Location :
North Yorkshire
Scarborough
Eskdaleside cum Ugglebarnby
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| Grid Ref : NZ8593606186 |
| Summary : Alum quarry located on the south side of the Esk valley between Grosmont and Sleights. 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 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 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. This quarry probably opened after 1817 and had ceased production by 1895. The site consists of: a quarry and two raised trackways that lead from a terrace beside the quarry face to a second terrace where the steeping tanks would have stood. Evidence of the steeping pits, cisterns, liquor trough and clamp bases may be buried on the second terrace. The quarry is known as Eskdaleside New Alum Works; it is located to the east of Eskdaleside Old Alum Works. |
More information : (NZ 8595 0603). New Alum Works (NAT).
(NZ 8593 0613). Cisterns (NAT). (1)
(NZ 8595 0610). New Alum Works (Disused) (NAT). (2)
NZ 859 062. Eskdaleside New Alum Works. (3)
On the basis that Young (authority 4a) makes no mention of this works while authority 1 seems to suggest it was active when that map was surveyed, it seems probable that the works opened sometime between 1817 and 1853; the evidence of authority 2 shows it had closed by 1895. The row of seven rectangular features in the quarry floor labelled cisterns by authority 1 are undoubtedly a range of steeping pits, while suggestions of a liquor trough running off downhill from the range's north-west corner suggest that the alum house lay somewhere in that direction. (4)
An alum quarry located on the south side of the Esk valley between Grosmont and Sleights. 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. This quarry opened during 1764 and remained in production until 1817. The site consists of: two raised trackways that lead from a terrace beside the quarry face to a second terrace where the steeping tanks would have stood. Evidence of the steeping pits, cisterns, liquor trough and clamp bases may be buried on the second terrace. This quarry is known as Eskdaleside New Alum Works and is located to the east of the Eskdaleside Old Alum Works. (5-6)
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