Eskdaleside New Alum Works

 quarry, historic landmark

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Alum quarry located on the south side of the Esk valley between Grosmont and Sleights. Alum was principally used in the textile industry as a fixing agent for clothing dyes; it was also used by tanners to produce supple leather. After the shale had been quarried it was heaped into large mounds, fired and left to smoulder for up to nine months. The shale was then tipped into leaching tanks where it was left to soak in water. The solution, containing aluminium sulphate was drained off and ran along stone or wooden conduits known as liquor troughs to the Alum House. Here the water was boiled away from the solution in evaporating pans. An alkali, derived from human urine or burnt kelp, was added to cause precipitation of the alum crystals. The crystals were then bagged and transported for sale. The burnt shale left in the leaching pits was either disposed of nearby to form enormous shale tips or thrown in to the sea. This quarry probably opened after 1817 and had ceased production by 1895. The site consists of: a quarry and two raised trackways that lead from a terrace beside the quarry face to a second terrace where the steeping tanks would have stood. Evidence of the steeping pits, cisterns, liquor trough and clamp bases may be buried on the second terrace. The quarry is known as Eskdaleside New Alum Works; it is located to the east of Eskdaleside Old Alum Works.

www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1455838