Sir Francis Mine Dressing Floor, Gunnerside Gill

Bouse bays and wheel pit at the Old Gang dressing floor of Sir Francis Lead Mine in Gunnerside Gill, Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire.
The bouse (or ore) was often hand-sorted by boys and women. Rock containing no ore was thrown onto the spoil heaps and any pure galena (lead ore) was crushed into small pieces. Initially this was done by hand using a large flat hammer, but later by a water-powered crusher in the wheel pit. Finally the pea-sized lumps of ore were sieved and sent to a smelt mill.