The Lime Industry
No-one can visit this area without becoming interested in this ancient industry which converts the local rock into magical products. There is extensive evidence of just how important lime was - and is - and this is but a lay-man's outline to give some idea of what was involved. Basically:
- at some stage, early man realised that the lime-green grass of the area was attributable to the underlying rock
- early experiments with the rock revealed that when heated, it developed marvellous properties
- the heating method evolved into the ubiquitous limekiln, which must have worked very successfully to judge by the numbers of kilns surviving
Limestone rock was excavated and broken, and then layed in the kilns with charcoal. When the kiln was fired, the limestone heated and transformed into "hydrated lime" (producing a toxic gas along the way which accounted for a few poor souls seeking warmth beside the kiln).
Hydrated lime provides:
- fertiliser for the land
- a setting agent for mortar (mixed with sand and grit, according to need - basic recipe is 1 part lime to 1.25 parts sand and 1.25 parts grit, subject to endless local variation)
- the primary ingredient of limewash (1.7 parts water to 2.3 parts lime, applied in five coats, 24 hours apar)
- and then, of course, there is lime render, somewhere between mortar and limewash
And if that wasn't enough, lime has a role to play in soap making, pickling and many other common-or-garden processes.
