Lime Kiln at Apes Tor Level, Ecton Hill, Hamps & Manifold Valleys

Summary

Late 18th century circular lime kiln built into the floor of a quarry. The top of the lime kiln pot is on the working floor of the Apes Tor Level (part of Deep Ecton Mine - NTSMR 64469) on Ecton Hill.

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Description

(1) Late 18th century circular lime kiln built into the floor of a quarry. The stone-lined silted-up lime kiln pot is 4-5m wide, and is up to 3m deep, below which it is blocked with rubble. To the north of the pot there was a thick drystone retaining wall, although the majority of it has now collapsed. The retained sides of the sunken emptying place are intact but the emptying tunnel and drawing passage for draught whichpan to the pot has collapsed. The lime kiln is c.5m high. The top of the lime kiln pot is on the working floor of the Apes Tor part of Deep Ecton Mine [NTSMR 64469], within the eastern quarry of a series of limestone quarries at the steep lower slope of this part of Ecton Hill [NTSMR 64472].

The lime kiln was supplied with limestone from the mine and the extensive surface quarries. Coal was being imported to Ecton in lare quantities for use at the Duke of Devonshire's lead smelter at Deep Ecton Mine. The mine and quarries clearly produced large quantities of limestone. Thus, it seems likely that the kiln was producing lime on an industrial scale, presumably for use on the estate and/or to sell to other consumers, and also for lime mortar for the various construction works at Ecton mines. The lime could be removed straight from the bottom of the lime kiln at the road following the bottom of Apes Tor. There is no spoil heap (produced by the grading of lime for sale) associated with the kiln. It may be that the lime produced for agricultural purposes was used in an unrefined state, with the slags and cinders included. It is unclear whether the lime for mortar was refined on site (and the waste presumably tipped into the river), or at places at the mine where is was required.

There are references to the importation of lime to the Deep Ecton Mine in the 1760s. This probably suggests the kiln had not been built at that point in time. The first reference to filling the kiln is from 1783 (Porter, 2004). In the early 1780s there appears to have been a shift in emphasis from bringing ore up to the Apes Tor dressing floors from the boat level 60m below, to bringing up waste stone (see NTSMR 64469). It is likely that the lime kiln was built at the point that this happened. Waste stone eventually ceased to be brought up the shaft as the mines went into decline in the late 18th or early 19th century, at which time limestone would have been sourced from the adjacent surface quarries. The lime kiln is marked on OS maps of the area from 1879 and annotated 'Old LK [Limekiln]', suggesting it had gone out of use by that time.

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