Langley and Blagill lead smeltmills, flue and chimney - List Entry
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Description
...The entire layout of Langley Mill survives as earthworks which will retain evidence for the development of the site and the technologies employed. Langley was also an important early site for zinc smelting and archaeological remains related to this process are also believed to survive. The standing and earthwork remains of ancillary buildings will all add to the understanding of the working of the site. The flue, which was extended and modified several times, retains rare surviving evidence of a steam powered condenser together with features related to the washing and lead recovering system....The monument is situated towards the top of the hillside rising from the South Tyne up to Stublick Moor. It includes the buried remains of a closely associated pair of smeltmills, with the standing and earthwork remains of a shared flue system which leads to an intact chimney. The estates of the Earl of Derwentwater were forfeited to the Crown after his part in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. These lands, which included the mineral rich area of Alston Moor, were assigned to the Greenwich Hospital in 1735. The London Lead Company took most of the mineral leases and paid Greenwich Hospital a rent in the form of duty ore. Initially this ore was sold back to the London Lead Company who smelted it at their smeltmill at Nenthead, but in 1768 Greenwich Hospital built their own smeltmill at Langley and started smelting the ore themselves. The mill was further expanded in the 1770s and the mill, in addition to the ore hearths, included two refining furnaces (for extracting silver from the lead ore), a reducing furnace (used to convert the lead litharge, which was left after the silver had been extracted, into metallic lead), and a slag hearth (for resmelting the waste slag from the ore hearths). In the 1780s the Greenwich Hospital built a second smeltmill next to, and downhill from Langley Mill.... -
Owner
Historic England -
Source
Local (Co-Curate) -
License
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Further information
Link: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1018211
Resource type: Text/Website
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
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Picture Taken: Unknown -
Co-Curate tags
