2019
NY6930 : Silverband Mine aerial ropeway brake house
taken 4 years ago, 4 km NNE of Knock, Cumbria, England
Silverband Mine aerial ropeway brake house
The Historic England listing (see shared description) notes: '..remains of a concrete-floored, single storey, stone-built brake house associated with the aerial ropeway. The brake house consisted of only two walls, the north and south. The north wall survives up to roof height and has a small square extension still partly roofed in corrugated metal sheeting. There are small windows in the extension's east and west walls and a fireplace in its north wall. The south wall partly stands to roof height, the remainder of it has fallen outwards. The floor of the building contains at least seven concrete blocks, each flush with the floor and containing sawn off bolts while immediately to the west of the brake house are two more concrete blocks with sawn off bolt holes.'
As can be noted from this image, the extension is now roofless, with the corrugated iron sheets scattered across the area.
Silverband Mine aerial ropeway, Great Dun Fell Images of the former Silverband Mine aerial ropeway, taken in March and December 2019.
The ropeway was installed c.1939 by B Laporte & Co (later Laporte Chemicals) who mined barytes at Silverband, just below the summit of Great Dun Fell. An aerial ropeway some 5.6km long took unprocessed barytes to a mill at Millburn Grange, from where another ropeway took the finished product to Long Marton railway station. In 1963, parts of the ropeway were transferred to the Aviemore Ski Centre in Scotland.
References:
Smith, R and Murphy, S (2011) Mines of the West Pennines, British Mining, No. 91, Northern Mine Research Society, Nelson.
Historic England listing: Link
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