History of Lathkill
Though Lathkill Dale might appear to the casual observer to be
an entirely natural valley, in fact very little of it has not been
touched by the hand of man at some point in the past.
10,000 years ago, the valley was in its natural state: thick ashwoods,
resembling the Meadow Place Wood of today, covered the slopes, grading
to oak and birch on the plateau. A tangle of willow and alder would
have filled the valley floor.
The first farmers settled in the Neolithic period, and began to
cut back the woodland to provide grazing for their domesticated
animals. This, then, was the origin of the grasslands - yes, they
might be thousands of years old.
It was probably a Norse settler who gave the valley its name: Hlatha-gyll,
meaning 'barn in a narrow valley'; its association with farming
has continued to the present day. Perhaps its most intensive agricultural
use was in medieval times, when farms run by monasteries used the
dale for their sheep flocks, part of England's wool industry, our
most important export at the time.
Other users – millers, leadminers, quarrymen, foresters -
have come and gone, and have all left their mark on the land. Lead
mining in particular has left us with an array of visible reminders,
such as Bateman's House and Mandale Engine House.
Bateman’s House
Bateman’s House was home to James Bateman, the agent for
Lathkill Mines in the 1840s. Its most unusual feature is that it
is built directly over a deep lead mineshaft.
The building has recently been made safe so that it will not suffer
further deterioration and visitors can safely explore it.
The repair work was quite an undertaking and required extra funds
to be sought form the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.
Starting underground, where green oak beams were used to replace
the existing rotting ones, the specialist builders worked their
way through the two metre deep layers of rubble that filled most
of the rooms. Roots were dug out, walls pointed with special mortar,
plaster and render carefully repaired and a number of interesting
discoveries made.
The work has revealed clear evidence that the structure was built
in phases, the earliest being purely industrial. Doors, windows
and fireplaces seem to have been added at a later date. A number
of features still require explanation: walls built over walls; windows
converted into flues; sockets and recesses in odd places. The semi-circular
steps to the front door, about the size of millstones, are an outstanding
feature. One of the best finds was a deeply engraved sandstone boundary
marker that delimits the ownerships of the Duke of Devonshire (marked
with ‘DD’) and the Melbourne Estate (‘M’).
Exploration underground in the dry summer of 2003 found two shafts
under the house, one filled with rubble.
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