ABSTRACT
Stoprice’ was brushwood used to stop the gaps between groove timbers. Additional wood was required for specialist purposes such as rails, and planking for constructing leats and washing floors. Although planks were often softwood imported from abroad, the remainder of these woodland products was supplied from local woods, mainly within the Dale. Coppice woodlands continued to be important to the lead industry into the 19th century, and their distinctive remains can still be seen in much of lower Swaledale. This mainly documentary picture of Swaledale’s woods gives the impression that woodlands managed as coppices for the lead industry were predominant. Most of the lower slopes of this common pasture are covered in charcoal platforms, extending far outside the modern limits of Ivelet Wood. Excavation of one of these platforms produced charcoal radiocarbon-dated to the 17th century. It thus seems likely that much of the post-medieval woodland in upper Swaledale was subject to common rights of pasture.
