The Northernmost Kilns: Commondale’s Forgotten Industry

A view up the narrow valley of Commondale, taken from the weathered lime kilns that still cling to the slopes above Coble Hall. Crumbling and defiant, I reckon they must be the most northerly kilns in the North York Moors, silent witnesses to a brief and curious chapter of industrial ambition.

Built and operated between 1817 and 1838 by Otley & Lightbody, these kilns fed on a small, impure seam of limestone that ran beneath the moor¹“Industrial Sites in Cleveland: supplementary list 2”. The Cleveland Industrial Archaeologist No. 36 (2016). Page 63.. It was a modest enterprise, born and abandoned long before the railway reached Castleton in 1861. In those days, the finished lime—quick or slaked—was packed and carried laboriously across the moors by pannier train, probably via Baysdale, skirting the tolls of the Stokesley to Whitby turnpike road²Burns, Tom Scott. “The Walker’s Guide to the Cleveland Hills”. Page 60 1993. ISBN 1-85825-009-9.. Coal, too, would have come from nearby pits at Danby, Baysdale and Rudland Rigg, hauled across the heather to feed the fires.

But the limestone here held too much iron to be of much use to farmers. It refused to sweeten the fields, staining rather than enriching them. Instead, the clue lies in the name of an associated company that built the kilns: the Middlesbrough Pottery Co.³“The North York Moors Landscape Heritage”. Edited by D.A.Spratt and B.J.D.Harrison. Page 167. 1989. David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 93472.⁴“The Industrial Heart of Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough Pottery”. The Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society Report 10 (2010). Page 12.⁵“Yorkshire potteries, pots and potters.” Page 79. OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., Keeper of the York Museum. COULTAS & VOLANS LTD., PRINTERS, LITTLE STONEGATE, YORK 1916. [online] Available at: https://archive.org/stream/yorkshirepotteri00grab/yorkshirepotteri00grab_djvu.txt [Accessed 23 Jul. 2021]. Their lime was not meant for the soil but another type of kiln—probably for use as a flux to lower the firing temperature, helping glazes to fuse and vitrify.

What remains today is a ghost of enterprise: stonework blackened by centuries of wind and rain, overlooking a valley that has long since returned to silence.

• 1
  “Industrial Sites in Cleveland: supplementary list 2”. The Cleveland Industrial Archaeologist No. 36 (2016). Page 63.
• 2
  Burns, Tom Scott. “The Walker’s Guide to the Cleveland Hills”. Page 60 1993. ISBN 1-85825-009-9.
• 3
  “The North York Moors Landscape Heritage”. Edited by D.A.Spratt and B.J.D.Harrison. Page 167. 1989. David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 93472.
• 4
  “The Industrial Heart of Middlesbrough: Middlesbrough Pottery”. The Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society Report 10 (2010). Page 12.
• 5
  “Yorkshire potteries, pots and potters.” Page 79. OXLEY GRABHAM, M.A., Keeper of the York Museum. COULTAS & VOLANS LTD., PRINTERS, LITTLE STONEGATE, YORK 1916. [online] Available at: https://archive.org/stream/yorkshirepotteri00grab/yorkshirepotteri00grab_djvu.txt [Accessed 23 Jul. 2021].