Storrs Common lime kiln

Description

Storrs Common lime kiln near Ingleton (c) YDNPA 2023

Much of this kiln has been robbed out or has collapsed, and only the draw arch remains more or less intact. The size of the mound indicates how big the kiln would have been. Its date of construction is unknown but it was in use in the 1840s.

Quarrying for limestone had been carried out on Storrs Common for centuries, either supplying building stone for local villagers or stone for a number of kilns that once existed on the Common before Storrs Quarry was developed on a large scale in the later 19th century. This kiln was probably the latest and largest to be built, and the only one still to be seen, and it was typical of early industrial kilns designed to produce lime on a commercial basis. The kiln operated in the same way as agricultural field kilns, with stone being tipped in at the top, up the surviving ramp, and lime being drawn out through the arch at the bottom.