Description and History of Site:-
Rosedale East Ironstone Mines. Opened 1859 worked by drifts into the hillside closed 1929. Remains include two sets of calcining kilns. The northern set referred to as the 'iron kilns' are the earlier, the southern known as the 'stone kilns' are later. The ventilation chimney is associated with ventilation of the ironstone mines, rather than with the kilns. The whole complex is now part of a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The 'stone kilns', located at SE 70551 98183, have sixteen masonry arches twice the number of arches of the kilns at the West Mines where the magnetic ore was discovered. The kilns were built into the steep hillside and followed curve of the railway. Through the masonry arches can be seen the remnants of the firebrick lining and the ends of cast iron beams anchored into the back wall. Some of the masonry is missing at the centre point where it was deliberately removed after closure of the mine in order to facilitate salvage activities to recover the calcined dust from the lower hillside where it had been tipped as waste.
The 'iron kilns', located at SE 70540 98841, were of a completely different design from the stone kilns and would have originally have had wrought iron plates covering the whole of the front of the three bays of the structure. A small area of fire-brick lining can be seen at the top of the rear wall, originally the whole of the interior faces of the kilns were covered with fire-brickwork. Conservation of these kilns and the chimney was carried out by the North Yorkshire Moors National Park in the 1990s to arrest the rapid deterioration which was occurring.

Further Reading and References:-
[1] Chapman, S. 2004. Rosedale and its ironstone mines. Peter Tuffs.
[2] Morris, C. H. 2014. A walk round the Rosedale East Side ironstone mines and kilns. CIAS Newsletter No. 107.
[3] Rosedale Mines and Railway, Hayes RH & Rutter JG, Scarborough and District Archaeological Society, Research Report No 9, 1974.
http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/rosedale.html

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Key Words :- ironworking ironstone mine kiln Rosedale North york Moors

Viewing the Site :- On open Moorland, can be viewed from the former railway line, now a footpath

Address :- Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, YO18 8RJ
Grid Ref :- SE 7055 9881
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.379910 , Long -0.915318
Local Authority :- Ryedale District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - North Riding
Site Status :- Scheduled Ancient Monument SAM
Historic England List No - 1018981,
Site Condition :- Site derelict - some buildings remaining
Site Dates :- 1859 - 1929
Record Date :- 15 October 2015

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Charles Morris