Mike Gill and Mike Squirrell, SB, A5 103pp Copiously illustrated with photographs, maps, plans and tables.

Although Malham will spring to most minds as being a tourist honeypot in a farming area, in the midst of some of Yorkshire’s most spectacular landscape, for around 200 years it also hosted a small mining community.

Since George Kelsall published Arthur Raistrick’s ‘Mines and Miners on Malham Moor’, thirty years ago, detailed histories of mining in surrounding parishes ave been published in the British Mining series, but Malham remained untouched. In recent years, however, more material has become available and this has enabled the authors (Mike Gill and Mike Squirrell) to re-examine our understanding of Malham and find that many interpretations could be revised and others greatly enhanced.

As well as showing that land and mineral ownership was more complex than originally thought, they discuss the geological context of the mines, and have established a more reliable chronology for significant developments such as the smelt mills and calamine houses. They also show that most miners were recruited from established lead mining areas in Wharfedale and Littondale, with some colliers coming from Ingleton. Biographical details of over 50 men and boys who worked at the mines over a period of sixty years are given and areas for future research are identified.