Dammed Lodges and Tales of Hoffman

From the village we crossed the Settle-Stainforth road and then the footbridge over the railway line (with its recently renewed rails and sleepers) to Langcliffe Mill. There was, Jim Nelson told us, a corn mill on this site in the twelfth century, built by the monks of Furness Abbey. The present buildings, initially constructed as a cotton mill in the late eighteenth century and enlarged in the early nineteenth, were powered by the waters from the extensive mill reservoir. The water wheels were replaced by turbines at the end of the nineteenth century and these were later supplemented by steam to provide power when the water supply was inadequate. Interestingly, when I referred to the mill reservoir as a ‘lodge’, this merely elicited blank looks. Here I was told, it is always called a ‘dam’. It seems that ‘lodge’ is the term used further south (e.g. in Derbyshire and probably elsewhere) but is unknown here.

The walk continued along the track beside the reservoir to the group of mill-workers’ cottages and to the weir on the Ribble. From here, the path on the east bank of the Ribble took us back to the Settle- Stainforth road and to the tunnel under the railway leading to the site of the old lime works and the Hoffman kiln. A useful and very readable account of the kiln appears in David S. Johnson’s book on walks in the southern Yorkshire Dales and also in an article by J. Playfer in an earlier number of the NCHT’s Journal (see references). It was no coincidence that David S. Johnson was with us and gave us a fascinating account of the history and operation of the kiln and of the other workings on the site. Return was by the path southwards over the fields to Langcliffe. Tea and mince pies at Rock House undid all the beneficial effects of the afternoon’s exercise.

Selected References