North Bank Wood, North Yorkshire

Something hiding in the undergrowth

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Part way across a field is this area of scrub and small trees, maybe 80m long by 10m wide. One could easily pass by and not notice anything, but poke about in the bushes and one will find the remains of stone walls which were once the row of stone built cottages known as Leven Vale. These were built for miners c1873 employed at the nearby Warren Moor Mine, a typical example of Victorian speculation that went wrong. A lot of money was initially spent in 1865/6 with infrastructure including shafts and chimney, but the project went bust within 2 years. A few years later another attempt was made to find and extract iron ore from the mine, with cottages being built here and advertisements for miners placed in local newspapers, but again within a very short time the project was abandoned. Most of the stone from these disused cottages was transported by horse and cart to Kildale to help build the village hall of 1929.

Uploaded to Geograph by Gordon Hatton on 4 September 2015

Creative Commons License Photo © Gordon Hatton, 4 September 2015. Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons licence

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