Bewerley – SE 117651
Providence Mill 1960s – Copyright © NMRS Records
Like Cockhill, this mill had two hearths, each with its own short flue leading to a separate chimney. Its history is problematical, however, and Jennings’ suggestion that this may have been the mill which Sir John Ingleby was given permission to use “the south end of” in 1785, is not supported by its absence from Moss’s plan of 1800. Moreover, the flues appear to be an integral part of the mill and 1785 is early for such a feature. It is likely, therefore, that Ingleby was to use White’s Mill, near Eagle Hall gateway.
The mill’s name suggests that it was built to serve the Providence Mine, but there is a problem with that argument, too. From 1793 to c1817, the adjoining Prosperous and Providence Mines were leased to John Wood who appears to have worked them together and smelted at Prosperous Mill.
The mill may, therefore, have been built c1814 as a replacement for White’s Mill, to smelt ore from small mines at Toft Riggs, Stoney Grooves and the Hardcastle Moor – Ravenstones Allotment areas. It may also have been used by the Perseverance Mining Company, which worked between 1825 and 1830. It probably closed in the slump of 1830-31 and was still not working in 1839, when the agent’s reports make no mention of it. The mill may have been reopened in 1859 by the Nidderdale Lead Mining Company Ltd to smelt its ore until 1863, when it took over Prosperous and Providence Mine and Mill.
Further information and references can be found in:
- Gill, M.C. Yorkshire Smelting Mills Part 2, Northern Mine Research Society Memoirs 1993, British Mining No 48, pp 132-151
