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January, 1952

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The Pennine Chain used to be the most prolific source of lead in the British Isles, and from Northumberland to Derbyshire hundreds of mines, most of them small, supplied the world before many of the great mining fields overseas were discovered. The Pennines are rich in the historical lore of mining, and there is evidence of Roman working in different parts of the field, though not, curiously enough, in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall in the north. In the past the Pennines produced their share of miners who emigrated, and in the mineral fields of other countries one will find as many families boasting of Dales ancestry as of Cornish ancestry.

The last mine to work galena as its main product was the famous Mill Close, in Derbyshire, which was forced to close down in 1944 because of prohibitive drainage costs. During the war many of the mines were reopened for the production of fluorspar and, to a lesser extent, of calcite, with galena as a byproduct, and today, with an increasing demand for these industrial minerals, new companies are being formed, old mines are being reopened, and even old dumps are being worked.

The Dales are valleys cutting across or through the Pennines, and comprise tributary valleys and main valleys from which spring the great rivers which in turn support important industries towards the sea. But the suffix "-dale." also includes, besides the valley itself, the range of hills on either side, so that the dividing line between two adjacent dales is usually the crest of a range of uplands, uplands which can rise to such peaks as Ingleborough, Great Whernside, Pen-y-Ghent and Cross Fell. Although in winter, according to Ivor Brown, an ideal setting for King Lear, the Pennines for the rest of the year are a hospitable land of shining clints, mountain streams, roaring waterfalls, caves, pot-holes, sheep and curlews.

Our present study is confined to the mines of the five most northerly Dales and their tributary dales — Allendale (East and West) in Northumberland, Weardale and Teesdale in Durham, and Swaledale and Wensleydale in Yorkshire. It will exclude Alston Moor in Cumberland and the detached Haydon Bridge district in Northumberland, which do not properly belong to the Dales, but for the sake of interest the map shows certain mines outside the area covered by the text. We shall not touch on the next dale to the south, Wharfedale, where the onceproductive Grassington field is situated but which is outside the author's experience. The entire district consists of the Carboniferous Limestone series, or "Lead Measures," but little further will be said about the geology as this is not a geological article, and the tremendous literature on the subject has been well summarised by Dr. K. C. Dunham.

From the accompanying formidable list of mines it will be judged that to describe each separately would be an unenviable task. Many of them, as it happens, are of little interest, and in some cases a "mine" was no more than an exploratory adit or even a "hush." Available information about some of the older mines is vague, and different shafts connected underground may each have been designated as a mine with its own name, especially in those cases we have indicated as groups of mines. In other cases, too, part of a mine may have been called by the name of the vein being worked in that part. The list includes all the mines, or groups of mines, shown on the map, and although it is thought that the map and the list are fairly complete, absolute completeness is not guaranteed. In the text we shall confine ourselves to the more interesting mines and features.

The parent companies

With regard to the various companies which have been concerned in the mining history of the field, the most important were the London Lead Company and the Beaumont-Blackett family concern, which originally was not a company. The history and fortunes of the London Lead Company have been painstakingly, and at great length, traced by Dr. Arthur Raistrick, who over many years collected much material on his own account and also worked through the books of the company which are preserved in the library of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle.

The company originated in 1692 in the granting of a charter by William and Mary to Constantine Vernatty and others for "Incorporateing the Governour & Compa. for smelting downe of Lead with Pittcoale and Seaacoale," and this company, as it had furnaces at Bristol, became known as the Bristol Company. It was unsuccessful, however, and was wound up in 1695. In the meantime the Society of Royal Mines Copper had been working in the North, principally the Lake District, In 1704 the 1692 charter was transferred to the copper concern, which included a strong Quaker element, and this action was the origin of the Quaker influence noticeable in the Dales even today. The new merger became known as the London Lead Company or the Quaker Lead Company, and in time, throughout the Northern Dales, it was as much a social institution as a mining company.

Between 1704 and 1730 the company took over mines and smelting mills in localities as far apart as Alston Moorand Flintshire (Halkyn), and also worked, successfully, lead and lead-silver mines in Scotland and Ireland, but the main scene of their multifarious operations was always the Northern Dales. The greatest period in the company's history was undoubtedly from 1810 to 1882, when Alston Moor, Teesdale and Weardale were in their heyday. There were economic difficulties, however, on account of the instability of price resulting from the war with France, and in a few months lead had dropped from £40 to £22 a ton. In spite of that, the company kept all its people employed, even though it meant working at a loss. Throughout the middle part of the century work was successful, and until 1881 the company spent much of its income on the improvement of social and technical conditions. The general decline of lead-mining, nevertheless, began to be felt, and in 1882 the main leases were sold to the Vieille Montagne Zinc Company. The company's active life continued in a small way at Hudeshope and Lodgesike in Teesdale and at Bollihope in Weardale until 1900, but came to an end in 1905 when the London Lead Company was formally wound up.

The Beaumont-Blackett family concern originated in 1696 with the granting of a lease to Sir William Blackett, who confined his activities to those mines of Weardale not held by the London Lead Company. His successors were the Beaumont family (forebears of the present Lord Allendale), who also worked mines in the two Allendales. The Beaumont Company, however, like the London Lead Company, began to feel the effects of declining trade, and in 1883 relinquished their leases to the newly formed Weardale Lead Company, which still exists. A minor but interesting sidelight on the Beaumont mines is furnished by Mackenzie's Record of the International Exhibition of 1862: "The ores of this country are most insufficiently represented. . . . We have a good and instructive series from Mr. Beaumont's mines, Allenheads, and a few fair samples of galena from Cardiganshire; but beyond these the collections are either poor, or fragmentary, or disorderly, and for the most part all three together."

Dr. Dunham has shown that the period of maximum production of the two companies in the field was between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and 1880, when the average annual output of the London Lead Company and the Beaumont-Blackett Company was about 20,000 tons — besides the output from a number of small concerns.

Northumberland: East and West Allendale

Although Westgarth Forster lists only five mines in East and West Allendale (including those in Cumberland), these were probably the only mines working at the time he compiled his celebrated Strata, and we have found records, some of them merely mentions, of about twenty, as shown on the map.

East Allendale

The most productive single mine in the whole field was Allenheads Mine (No. 11), which at different periods worked different veins and reached depths of over 1,000 ft. The earliest workings were probably in the sixteenth century. On Henry's Vein, cut in the early 1790's but not explored until 1825, a total strike length of 8,650 ft. was stoped, and this vein, with widths up to 20 ft., was the mainstay of Allenheads Mine until it closed down in 1896. Its continuation into Weardale, south of the Burtreeford Disturbance, is known as the Breconsike Vein.

Much of the production of this mine, as of some of the other mines in the field, was from "flats" — limestone cavities filled with ore — which vary greatly in size. The total production of lead concentrates from Allenheads between 1729 and 1795 was 55,785 tons, and between 1800 and 1896 it was 200,032 tons. The records for the period 1796-99 are missing, but the figure is estimated at 4,000 tons.

At Sipton Mine (No. 9) the shaft was sunk about 1850 to 350 ft. and exploration was carried out between 1859 and 1863, mainly on the Sipton Vein. Attempts to prove a continuous ore-body, however, were unsuccessful, and bad ventilation brought work to a stop in 1867. The Weardale Lead Company took over the mine in 1923 and worked Esp's Vein, which had first been discovered in the Blackett Level (q.v. below) in 1871, and from which there had been some small-scale production before 1914. This company had considerable success at Sipton and achieved a creditable production until, within recent years, the mine was closed down when the low price of lead made production uneconomic. An attempt was made at revival in the war, but the mine was finally abandoned in 1943. The company installed much modern equipment, including battery loco haulage and an up-to-date mill which was once destroyed by fire but rebuilt. The Sipton mill also treated ore from St. Peter's Mine (No. 9A), 4,000 ft. to the south, which is connected underground with Sipton Mine and worked the St. Peter's Vein.

The development of the East Allendale field was due in part to the driving of the Blackett Level, which was started in 1855 by the London Lead Company and was designed to drain and explore the valley from Allendale Town to Allenheads. The general manager of the company was Thomas Sopwith, F.R.S., of surveying fame, and the engineer-in-charge was T. J. Bewick, a founder of Bewick, Moreing & Co. The level was driven from Sipton shaft, from special shafts at Studdon Dene and Holmes Linn, and from the portal at Allendale Town, the direction throughout being almost due north and south except where a deviation was made with the intention of striking Gin Hill shaft at Allenheads. Another shaft was sunk to the level at Breckon Hill, and the lengths of the sections of the tunnel, as originally proposed, were as follows

Allendale Town (portal) to Studdon Dene	5,412	ft.
Studdon Dene to Holmes Linn	6,546
Holmes Linn to Sipton	8,490
Sipton to Breckon Hill	7,524
Breckon Hill to Gin Hill	8,352

This gives a total intended distance of 36,324 ft., but work was suspended in 1903 after the completion of 24,725 ft. Notes made by the author during a walk through the level from Allendale Town to Sipton give the average size as 7 ft. by 4 ft., and the accuracy of the alignment was shown by the fact that about two miles "inbye" the portal appeared as a pinhole of light. The average fall from south to north is 8 ft. per mile.

The only other mine in East Allendale was Swinhope (No. 12), which was entered from a shaft at Swinhopehead and, later, from an adit on the south bank of Swinhope Burn. During its period of operation, 1815 to 1872 (when it was abandoned as unpayable), the mine yielded 23,829 tons of lead concentrates, but as no blende was ever worked it is possible that there are still reserves of zinc ore.

Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article