2017
SE0791 : Condenser remains, Keld Heads lead mine
taken 7 years ago, near to Preston-Under-Scar, North Yorkshire, England
Condenser remains, Keld Heads lead mine
The walls, part hidden by young trees, might well be dismissed as a natural feature, but further examination shows that the wall some 10m away was part of a wheel pit and immediately below the condenser house on the flue system above Keld Heads smelt mill. The buildings are shown on the OS 6" map of 1853, and there are photos in the collection of the Yorkshire Dales Mining Museum that show the buildings here before they fell into decay. It appears that a water wheel here operated a fan which drew the fumes from the smelt mill furnaces up the flues. As the whole operation was wasteful in terms of useable lead going up the chimney, the condenser could regulate the flow of air/fumes, so that from time to time the flues could be scraped to remove useful lead deposits. The original flue system ran only a short way beyond this feature, but by 1865 had been extended a great distance to the moor at Cobscar.
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