Jig

Spent the morning with the gent in the picture. Ian Tyler is an authority on mining in the Lake District and nearby areas. He took us around our village exploring mining remains. Dufton was a lead and barytes ( with some silver) mining village. The mines themselves were in the hills behind. This picture is one of the remnants of a barytes crushing mill. It was a 'jig' that separated the ores of different weight. So the lead was usually at the bottom. The mill has gone now except for some foundations, water channels and a few relics like this.

Barytes was used in all sorts of industries such as paint making. The heavy stuff when stirring a pot of paint is the barytes.