Monument record MDR5039 - Pond and dam, Hardwick Wood, Wingerworth

SK 379660 Hardwick Wood, Lead Slagmill (site of). Site of lead slagmill on the northern edge of Hardwick Wood. All the pre-18th century buildings have gone and the area is overgrown. The dam providing water-power for the bellows can still be identified. It is now dry except for a small channel through which Redleadmill Brook flows, which was the principal source of water for the dam. The northern end of the dam is considerably banked up and the stream cuts a deep trough through it. By this gap are two wooden uprights, now [in 1968] partially rotted away, which were probably originally part of the sluice mechanism Documentary evidence dates the mill as 18th century or earlier and it was defunct by 1813 and probably by 1789. (1, 2) SK 379661. Lead Slag Mill. In Hardwick Wood there stand the remains of an early lead slag mill, giving its name to Redleadmill Brook, which is dammed. The pond is now a bed of reeds but is clearly visible, as is the sizeable earth wall of the dam. There are slight traces of a sluice mechanism in the opening in the dam wall through which the brook falls. (3) The attribution of 'lead slagmill' to this site seems to have originated as an early guess, and no record of any industrial activity at the site has been found. The documentary evidence referred to above probably relates to SMR 15310, rather than to the site in Hardwick Wood. The dam at the site is not marked on a map of 1758 but does appear on one of 1819. It does not appear on the 1879 OS 25-inch map, but is on the modern OS 6-inch. In the absence of any other evidence at present, it seems most likely that the dam was a reserve stock for the forge/red lead mill at Hanging Banks (SMR 15310) in times of drought. (4)