Allendale chimneys, Northumberland: The flue lines from the smelter in the valley can still be seen, bulging like veins across the frosty peatlandHigh above Allendale on this frost-sparkling January day, two stone chimneys reach up into a clear blue sky. Built in the 19th century, they exhaled fumes from horizontal flues that ran from a lead smelter more than two miles below on the valley floor. The flue lines can still be seen, bulging like veins across the fields. In places they have collapsed, revealing arched interiors where lead and silver would condense to be intermittently scraped off and recovered. The Allen valley is far less populated now than it was in the busy lead mining days. From this high point on Dryburn Moor I look out across a quiet dale parcelled up by drystone walls, farmhouses sheltered by Scots pine woods and a drove road that curves over the hillside. There's a far horizon of uplands and ridges and, in the distance, beyond the long trough of the Tyne Valley, is the white-crested wave of Cheviot. Snow lies on Cold Fell to the west and bleaches the level summit of Cross Fell in Cumbria. It's an exhilarating near-360-degree view. Continue reading...
Country diary: clear skies where lead mines once spewed out fumes
23. ledna 2018 7:30
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Celý článek: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/23/country-diary-allendale-chimneys-lead-mining-clear-skies-peatland
Zdroj: The Guardian