Photograph of meer stone 68 - Grassington Moor

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Location: This stone is in the Dales Countryside Museum collection in Hawes.

Latitude: 54.305897 Longitude: -2.194483

NGR: SD 873 900

Inscription: W B & Co F

This stone is in the Dales Country Museum collection in Hawes, some 28 km from its rightful home, and was originally part of the Yorkshire Dales Mining Museum collection. It is not known where it originated, but it is almost definitely associated with William Bagshaw. Of the 51 leases named on the Brailsford 1781 survey, William Bagshaw's name is associated with eight of them. Originally from a landed Derbyshire family, William Bagshaw (1713-1785) inherited the estates and mining interests from his godfather William Drake of Coates Hall, near Barnoldswick, in 1758. He continued to invest in the moor, as he was granted a lease in 1774 for 21 years by William, Duke of Devonshire. There was a long-lasting interest by the Bagshaw family in the area. A Bagshaw of Derbyshire is recorded as having interests in the area as early as 1730, and the family were still working the mines as late as the 1840s. See also MS 07. Photograph courtesy of the Dales Country Museum.