Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

Day: 19 January 2021

  • Ayton Banks Alum Works

    Ayton Banks Alum Works

    While Capt. Cook was swanning around the South Pacific, back home in Great Ayton, a nascent chemical industry was burgeoning on the escarpment slope at Gribdale. Alum, crystals of hydrated aluminium sulphate in combination with another alkali (usually potassium sulphate), was in much demand for a variety of uses: as a fixing agent in dyeing,…