Fragments of Archaeology and Glimpses of History in the Landscapes of the North York Moors

14. Some industrial archaeological aspects of Castleton

North Yorkshire

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Castleton Quarries

The Castleton quarries are on the moor top just north of the railway line.

	On one of the quarry tracks there are some nice fossil ripples from an ancient sandy beach. The high quality sandstone from the quarry was transported down to a crushing mill near Castleton Moor Station. The fine sand was then used for glass making and furnace linings. You can still see where one of the trackways-tramways down from the quarry which transported the stone to the crushing mill e.g. cleft in the moor edge, an embankment down from this cutting and the buttresses that once supported it over the track into Danby Park Wood. Some of the pits from the quarrying are filling with water and would make a good wildlife reserve?

Castleton Mill Race

The mill race starts about 1 mile (~1.5 km) south of Castleton village and runs north to a where the medieval manorial (and later) mills were situated, just to the west of Danby Low Moor (locally referred to as the 'Howe').

The remains of the weir that directed water from Danby Beck into the mill race.
The mill race follows the eastern bank of Danby Beck and is now full of mud and plants and is very boggy!
Eventually the mill race moves away from Danby Beck and is seen as a ditch passing Brookfield farm.
At Ashfield House the water flow is split between going down to the left through the posts of the sluice gate ..
... and go under the road to the mill pond (in both of above pictures).

The house beyond the mill pond is the site of the medieval manorial mill and the wheelhouse of a much later mill can still be seen. The channel from the mill pond into the wheelhouse can still be seen (right-hand extension of the house).

Castleton Kiln

This old kiln is situated north of Box Hall and south-west of White Cross. I'm not sure whether its a limekiln or a bracken burning kiln.

	If it was a lime kiln I would expect it to be a lighter colour inside the 'furnace' chamber? The back walls do look red in places which indicate it was a bracken kiln. The ash from burning bracken provided potash fertiliser for the soil - the soil is of poor quality in these acidic uplands.

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