A look at the history of Old Gang Smelt Mill, with Dr Emma Wells

The story of the Old Gang Smelt Mill begins high on the windswept moors above Gunnerside Gill in the North Pennines, where the land is shaped by centuries of industry.

The name ‘Old Gang’ is thought to derive from the Norse word gangr, meaning a passage or vein, a reminder of the region’s Viking heritage and of the mineral seams that sustained the community. The mill stands today as one of the best-preserved smelt mills in England, its ruins offering a rare window into the evolution of early industrial technology.

The complex features two mills: the older upper mill, likely the late-18th-century New Mill, set on a hillside terrace, and the lower Old Gang Mill, built in 1846 on the floodplain using the existing flue. Architecturally, the site was designed with a clear and practical purpose: to harness natural forces. Built of local limestone, the structures were carefully oriented to take advantage of prevailing winds. Unlike later mills that relied on water power or steam engines, Old Gang operated primarily as a wind-blown smelt mill. Ore was crushed and then heated in a furnace; bellows, driven by wind passing through cleverly positioned openings, intensified the fire enough to separate molten lead from waste material.

A small eastern structure, linked to its own flue, contained a slag hearth used to rework smelting waste. Nearby stood the Silver House, identifiable by the substantial chimney built into its north wall and thought to have served as an assay house for testing metal purity. The mill consumed vast quantities of peat, cut each June from the surrounding moorland and dried for year-round use. Its importance is evident in the large peat store on a terrace northwest of the dressing floor, supported by 36 stone piers. Three hushes survive to the east.

By the 19th century, larger and more technologically advanced smelting works elsewhere rendered Old Gang obsolete. It fell into disuse, though the stone shell endures.

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