RESTORATION work on a village landmark has led to a rethink about its original purpose.

The brick towers in the North York Moors National Park’s car-park in Grosmont were thought to have been part of a 19th century steam hoist used to move ironstone.

The theory fitted in with the fact that the towers are on the site of an old ironworks that operated between 1863 and 1891.

But a recent surveys and comparison with early photographs indicate that the towers are probably left over from slag reclamation and reprocessing operations which took place on the site from the early 20th century.

Slag - a by-product of the ironworks - was quarried from waste heaps and hauled back into the site to be crushed to produce roadstone. The brick towers are thought to have been used in that process.

The survey was conducted prior to conservation work on the towers which had become rather overgrown with vegetation and were deteriorating due to water getting in.

Senior archaeological conservation officer Graham Lee said: “With the advent of the railway and then the discovery of rich deposits of ironstone, Grosmont's small farming community became a boom town for a short period.

“Although not now thought to be part of the ironworks, the towers are still an important part of Grosmont's heritage.

“It also goes to show that however well we think we understand the sites around us, there is often additional information out there to discover which can help increase our knowledge of even the recent past.”