Bole Hill Plantation - 'holly smelter' slag 1

Limb Valley Bole Hill lead smelting site

A close-up view of a piece of slag from the 'holly smelter' site slag tip, adjacent to the stone-walled remains of what was almost certainly a lead smelting bole, high up on the northern edge of the Bole Hill Plantation in the Limb Valley, and possibly of 18th or early 19th century age. The slag has a ropy and porous, almost frothy texture, indicative of its former semi-molten condition.

A small square feature, depicting a building or structure of some sort appears on the 1st edition six-inch to one mile Ordnance Survey map published in 1854. It was probably disused even then, as the map shows the plantation all around it. Subsequent editions of the maps fail to show it, although curiously the feature has been resurrected on the latest OS maps, even though the structure has long since disappeared!

There are many 'Bole Hills' in Sheffield and along the west-facing sandstone and gritstone escarpments of the Eastern Edges. Their elevated locations were ideal for wind-blown furnaces ('boles') for smelting lead ore which was brought in by pack-horses from the Peak District mines further to the west.