{{short description|Hamlet in North Yorkshire, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2020}}
{{coord|54.308|-1.137|display=title|region:GB_scale:10000}}
[[File:Abbey Church at Rievaulx.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The ruins of the nearby [[Rievaulx Abbey]]]]
'''Laskill''' is a small [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] in [[Bilsdale]], 5 miles (8 km) north-west of [[Helmsley]], [[North Yorkshire]], England, on the road from Helmsley to [[Stokesley]] and is located within the [[North York Moors National Park]].  [[Archaeology|Archaeological]] investigations have revealed that the [[Cistercian]] [[monk]]s of the nearby [[Rievaulx Abbey]] had a large woolhouse there, dating from the middle of the 13th century.

The Cistercian monks, known to have been skilled [[Metallurgy|metallurgists]], also had a [[blast furnace]] (the only medieval example yet identified in [[Great Britain|Britain]]) for the [[smelting]] of [[iron ore]] into [[cast iron]]. The iron ore left in the [[slag]] at Laskill has been identified by Gerry McDonnell (archeometallurgist of the [[University of Bradford]]) as more refined than anything else at the time, suggesting a much more efficient blast furnace technology than otherwise existed – perhaps as advanced as a modern blast furnace.  The destruction of the abbey at Rievaulx by King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] during the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] put an end to this blast furnace and its advanced [[technology]].  Had the monks been allowed to share their new blast furnace techniques, which they frequently did with other advancements, the world might have entered the [[Industrial Revolution]] a full two and a half centuries earlier.<ref name="Laskill">* R. W. Vernon, G. McDonnell and A. Schmidt, 'An integrated geophysical and analytical appraisal of early iron-working: three case studies' ''Historical Metallurgy'' 31(2) (1998), 72-5 79.</ref><ref name="telegraph">
{{cite news | title=Henry 'Stamped Out Industrial Revolution' | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1397905/Henry-stamped-out-Industrial-Revolution.html | author=David Derbyshire | newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] | date=21 June 2002}}</ref>

The name Laskill derives from the [[Old Norse]] ''lágrskáli'' meaning 'low [[shieling]]'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Yorkshire+NR/Laskill+Pasture|title=Key to English Place-names|website=kepn.nottingham.ac.uk|accessdate=22 October 2025}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}
*''How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization'', [[Thomas Woods]], (2005), {{ISBN|0-89526-038-7}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline|Laskill}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in North Yorkshire]]


{{NorthYorkshire-geo-stub}}