Images from a Built Heritage Assessment of Silverband Mine Brake House and Aerial Ropeway, Dufton Fell, Milburn, Cumbria, March 2022
Stantec UK, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5284/1103177. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Stantec UK unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 5165
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1103177
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This collection comprises images from a built heritage assessment of Silverband Mine Brake House and Aerial Ropeway, Milburn, Cumbria, England, NGR NY 6949 3070. This was undertaken by Stantec UK on behalf of the Natural England Moor House National Nature Reserve in March 2022.
The works were carried out prior to the proposed conservation of the Brake House as part of a Conservation Management Plan being put together by Countryside Consultants of Alston. The Brake House and its associated aerial ropeway were built in 1939 to serve Silverband Mine, a former lead and barytes mine which operated intermittently from at least the 17th century until its final closure in 2006. Both the aerial ropeway and Brake House form part of a Scheduled Monument (NHLE 1021009), and as such are of national importance. The scheduling identifies the site as a rare example of a 20th century aerial ropeway, few of which now survive, and the site is identified as the best surviving example of an aerial ropeway used in a metal-mining context in England.
A full Historic England Level 2 survey of the Brake House and aerial ropeway was carried out. The survey identified that, although the ropeway had been damaged by attempts to salvage and remove it when the mine closed in 1964, and the Brake House had suffered through having lost its roof and having partially collapsed, sufficient evidence of its original form and function survived to be able to interpret the structure and provide an understanding of how it had functioned. This archive and the associated report are considered a complete record of the Brake House and aerial ropeway, and no further work is recommended prior to its conservation.
