Summary

The monument, located on a limestone knoll on the eastern valley side of Crag Beck and situated to the immediate E and S of Ashnott Farm, includes the earthworks and buried remains of Ashnott lead mine, together with the upstanding remains of a lime kiln.

Source: Historic England

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the earthworks and buried remains of Ashnott lead mine, together with the upstanding remains of a lime kiln. The surface remains of the lead mine include a group of adits or levels, small rock-cut shafts, numerous shallow bell-pits with surrounding spoil heaps, and numerous assorted small open-cuts.

DESCRIPTION: the lead mine occupies the surface of a limestone knoll at the northern tip of a broad promontory below Crag Hill. The surface workings comprise a complex pattern of in-filled or roughly-capped shafts, open-cuts, adits, spoil heaps and dressing floors, extending over an area of about 2.8ha. The main entrance consists of a level on the western side of the limestone knoll approximately 160m SW of Ashnott Farm.

The main dressing area is on the eastern side of the workings and includes a large bank of limestone debris with several smaller discard mounds, and a shallow depression flanked by low spreads of limestone waste and well-served by leats. Two dams formerly channelled water to these leats; one to the E, visible as two converging banks and a by-pass channel to their N, and one to the SE, visible as two banks set at 90 degrees to each other. Several small tracks lead to the dressing area from the shafts to the S. Some shafts have surrounding upcast from 0.5m to 1m in height, while others lack upcast, for example a small cluster to the SW. Several adits are driven into the western face of the knoll, including two adits with blocked entrances, visible as shallow depressions with spoil heaps. To the E of these is a large depression, which also has adits in its eastern face and appears to be linked by a tunnel to one of the western adits. Waste from the mine forms a series of broad terraces to the W, below the natural limestone scarp. A finger of spoil to the W has a sunken linear feature along its centre.

Underground, the mine workings are on four major horizons, with the two upper levels served by shafts from the surface, whilst in the two lower levels underground shafts lead from the upper to the lower level which in 1961 retained the remains of a tramway including wooden rails with iron running strips attached to the upper surface (several of these rails are now kept at the mining museum in Earby).

The single-pot lime kiln has been built into the hill slope immediately to the E of the farm buildings. It is constructed of roughly-hewn limestone blocks and has a low-arched W-facing draw hole and a slumped hollow marking the charge-hole above.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: this comprises two separate areas of protection. The first, immediately to the S and E of the farmhouse, is focussed on the principal workings and the lime kiln. To the N of the finger-dump at the SW corner of this area, the western boundary follows the inside line of, but does not include, the post-and-wire fence, and the dry-stone wall that runs to the S of the farm buildings. The northern boundary runs along the S side of, but does not include, the track accessing the farm. The eastern boundary follows the line of a small stream and then runs inside, but does not include, a post-and-wire fence which also defines the southern boundary.

The second area, to the SE of the first, includes the remains of a small dam which is recorded in 1847.

EXCLUSIONS: all modern walls, fenceposts, gateposts, telegraph poles, hard surfaces, timber outbuildings and the bases upon which they stand, an oil tank and the base on which it stands, and a timber pole supporting a television aerial are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath these features is included.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Ashnott lead mine and lime kiln is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: as an early example known through documentary references to have been worked at least as early as the late C13, and also to have been active during the late C16, C18 and C19;
* Rarity: as a rare example in NW England of a multi-period lead mine which displays surface and below-ground evidence of both medieval and post-medieval mining techniques surviving relatively undisturbed;
* Survival: for its good level of retained features including earthworks and buried remains comprising adits or levels, small rock-cut shafts, numerous shallow bellpits with surrounding spoil heaps, and numerous assorted small open cuts;
* Diversity: for the combination of the simpler upper levels and the more sophisticated lower levels, and the presence of the lime kiln which illustrates links between the industrial activity and upland farming practices;
* Fragility: as remains which are vulnerable to damage from pastoral farming and best protected through statutory designation.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Ashnott Lead Mine, Ribble Valley, Lancashire: An Archaeological Survey Of The Landscape Evidence, Went, D (2014) - research report series no. 74-214

Source: Historic England