Grey and Green

Moonface and I walked from Kirkby Stephen over the Pennines down Swaledale to Richmond, last week. It's one of England's most underpopulated areas, with vast swathes of bare moorland and upland bog. Even in the valley, there are few people and the villages are widely separated.

It wasn't always like this. From Roman times (and probably before) until early last century, the hills were one of the world's richest sources of lead. Metallurgists have found that Swaledale lead has been found as far afield as Jerusalem. ( like the lead and silver from the Mendips, closer to our home) There are strange hummocks and folds in the hillside throughout the valley where mines one were, and the remains of smelting mills on the moors. There must have been hundreds of people involved, from the miners themselves to the peat diggers who provided the fuel for smelting, to the wainwrights and pack-men who provided transport, and the cooks, builders and ancilliaries who kept the mines going. All of them needed food, so the farmers would have been richer and more numerous than now.

Now, on the tops, there is silence. The hills were stripped of peat to fuel the smelting works, so the bare rock is exposed. The mine working and mills are in ruins. It's like another planet, when the valleys are hidden by perspective.


:-]