Richmond building firm Staley Stonework have restored one of Westmorland’s most important 19th century industrial sites, the Smardale Gill limekilns near Kirkby Stephen.
It means the Grade II-listed stone structures can be removed from Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk’ register.
The kilns had been one of ten Scheduled Monuments and 74 Listed Buildings in the Yorkshire Dales National Park to be classed as ‘at risk’.
Major repair work was carried out between May and October this year by Staley Stonework following structural surveys completed by Mason Clark Associates of York. The project was led by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, as part of the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The restoration of the kilns is described as a ‘significant achievement’ in a progress report on the National Park Authority’s annual work programme.
Senior Historic Environment Officer Sarah Whiteley told the Dales Archaeology Day conference: “The kilns were built in the mid-19th century and appear on the 1857 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of the area. They were built initially for the production of lime used in the construction of Smardale Gill viaduct, then in the production of lime for steel making in Barrow and Darlington. They are part of a wider complex of industrial features here, which includes quarries, railway sidings, an incline plane tramway and engine house, representing what was formerly a major commercial lime producing operation.
“Hopefully we have maintained the significance of the kilns by doing this work, and have increased understanding of the monument.”
