Geograph - photograph every grid square

The chimney is evidence that lead smelting took place at Stone Edge. More substantial than the bole hearths of the 16th and 17th Centuries, the "cupolas" were built in the 18th and 19th Centuries on an industrial basis. Most of them used coal as fuel and had associated stone buildings. The Stone Edge Cupola was built in 1770, making it Britain's oldest free standing chimney, but the remains of its additional buildings lie hidden under the grass and brush. The smelt mill closed around 1860.