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Viewing swaag.org website implies consent to set cookies on your computer. Full details Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation Number 1155775
SWAAG Honorary President:
Tim Laurie F,S,A,

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 *****SWAAG_ID***** 219
 Date Entered 04/06/2011
 Updated on 27/08/2012
 Recorded by Alan and Judith Mills
 Category Mining Related
 Record Type Mining
 Site Access Public Access Land
 Record Date 04/06/2011
 Location Below Whaw Edge
 Civil Parish Arkengarthdale
 Brit. National Grid NY 97524 03517
 Altitude 1490 ft
 Geology Main Limestone
 Record Name Danby Level
 Record Description Easterby, Hall & Co began running the Arkengarthdale mines in January 1800. In November of that year they were "driving no fewer than nine horse levels and spending £300 per week" (1). Danby Level was one of them and seems to have been begun around this time. It is on the North side of the Great Blackside Vein and was driven to work veins in the Main Limestone including Martin, Dam Rigg, Lucks All and Wetshaw Head veins (2). Unusually, the level contains an underground horse whim above a shaft, to enable working of the Danby Underlevel some 11 fathoms below (3). At times it was quite productive, raising 1600 tons of ore in the three years 1882-4 (4). The mine was worked out by the close of the 19th century.

(1) Swaledale, its mines & smelt mills; Mike Gill. (2) Geology of the Northern pennine Orefield Vol 2; Dunham & Wilson. (3) British Mining No. 53 The Arkengarthdale Mines; L.O. Tyson. (4) British Mining No. 72 The Mines of Yorkshire; Gill & Burt

Photos taken June - August 2003, copyright Alan Mills.
 Additional Notes Gill & Burt 2003, state that Danby Level output in tons was: 1749 2.80, 1750 3.50, 1782 53.30, 1871 5.15, 1872 2.05, 1874 11.10, 1875 5.15, 1882 600.10, 1883 442.50, 1884 577.80, 1885 97.25, 1886 32.75, 1887 26.90. The 1700's returns although listed under Danby Level are likely to be from Danby Hush.
 Image 1 ID 742         Click image to enlarge
 Image 1 Description Negotiating the first fall through an old oil drum
 Image 2 ID 743         Click image to enlarge
 Image 2 Description Negotiating another fall
 Image 3 ID 744         Click image to enlarge
 Image 3 Description Examining the geology
 Image 4 ID 746         Click image to enlarge
 Image 4 Description Negotiating yet another fall
 Image 5 ID 747         Click image to enlarge
 Image 5 Description Sitting below hanging death - deads (spoil) stacked above the level on old timbers (stemples)
 Image 6 ID 748         Click image to enlarge
 Image 6 Description Plane-table surveying
 Image 7 ID 749         Click image to enlarge
 Image 7 Description An ore chute from workings above (stoping)
 Image 8 ID 750         Click image to enlarge
 Image 8 Description Detonator boxes
 Image 9 ID 751         Click image to enlarge
 Image 9 Description Nobel explosives wrapper; at first I thought this was dynamite, patented 1867, but could be gelignite, patent 1876, One of the cheapest explosives, it burns slower, cannot explode without a detonator, is safer, so better for use underground.
 Image 10 ID 752         Click image to enlarge
 Image 10 Description Blast marks - probably from black powder rather than dynamite as little fracturing of rock
 Image 11 ID 753         Click image to enlarge
 Image 11 Description Surveyor's mark, possibly indicating extent of level at 23 June 1879
 Image 12 ID 754         Click image to enlarge
 Image 12 Description Graffiti - written on flat roof with smoke from candle
 Image 13 ID 755         Click image to enlarge
 Image 13 Description As above
 Image 14 ID 756         Click image to enlarge
 Image 14 Description As above - probably the initials of James Thomas Hird - a local miner - born ca. 1863, son of James Hird, lead miner, and Ruth. In the 1871 & 1881 censuses he is shown as living at Low Level, Arkengarthdale, (Moulds?) with his mother, a widow.
 
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