Mining in the North Pennines

At a recent meeting of the Alston Moor Historical Society ­­­­once again a resident of the Moor gave a talk on a local topic. The Society was pleased to welcome John Crompton, President of the North East Institute of Mining & Mechanical Engineers. John is also an expert on mining in the North Pennines, the title of his talk, and has gained much first hand knowledge of the subject as a result of his years of work with the North Pennines Exploration Group (NORPEX), involving a great deal of time underground.

The illustrated talk covered the considerable involvement of the London Lead Company in creating one of the most significant lead and silver mining areas in Europe. In the Dark Ages the North Pennines was included in the ancient kingdom of Cumberland and was known to be rich in veins of lead. The discovery of lead holding dowels in Roman bridge joints raises the possibility that, due to the relatively close proximity of the Roman Wall, the lead may have been taken from the Alston Moor area. Later there is mention in the writings of the Venerable Bede in 735AD that Bishop Eadart covered the roof of Lindisfarne Abbey with sheets of lead. The Pipe Rolls of 1130 make reference to silver being obtained for the mint at Carlisle. Coins of William Rufus using silver from Blagill Mine in the Nent Valley have been found on Browngill vein.

In later years the working of the area expanded with the formation of various companies. In 1692 the London Lead Company was formed out of the amalgamation of the Bristol Company, the Company of Mines Royal and the Ryton Company and this new company was to be the driving force behind mining in the North Pennines until its closure in 1905. The land on Alston Moor had been owned by the Earls of Derwentwater from Dilston Castle, but was confiscated and passed to the Commissioners for Seamen at Greenwich as a result of the part the then current Earl played in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. He was beheaded at the Tower of London in 1716.

The newly formed company worked in every valley in the area but eventually concentrated its efforts on Nenthead. Unwanted or unprofitable leases were sold to smaller companies, some of which proved to be viable by a smaller operation. From Headquarters in Middleton-in-Teesdale the company managed a very successful business. It was to be the dominant, although not the only, operator on the Moor. By 1780 the mining boom was in full swing and the appearance of the Moor changed radically with the building of dams, watercourses, smelt mills with flues going up the fells and a wide range of buildings. Dams were used to release large, powerful quantities of water down a ‘hush gutter’ which washed away the surface soil and debris leaving the veins exposed and ready for the men to work upon with picks. Long horse levels were driven into the mines and these helped with both drainage and ventilation. The Greenwich Hospital decreed that these levels should be built with dressed stone and should stand for 1000 years. There are hundreds of miles of these levels under the Pennines and are a testimony to the skill of the builders. Many of the mines are inter-connected and it is said that it was possible to walk underground from Garrigill to the Allen Valley. In bad weather these underground thoroughfares were often to be the preferred way of getting around the area or taking a short cut to a place of work!

Quakers operated the London Lead Company and they were caring employers looking after their employees very well, particularly by the then prevailing standards. The rapid expansion of the industry created a large influx of workers and they often lived in unhealthy conditions using a ‘shop’ – a barrack type of building that would accommodate as many as 60 men often sleeping 6 to a bed. Many mines were in very isolated places and the miners would travel from their home on a Sunday bringing with them their food for the week and return home on the following Friday night. Not surprisingly this life style was unhealthy and dysentery and cholera were rife. The London Lead Company realised that men could not work efficiently under these conditions and they invested in a programme of welfare measures to make life more bearable – and to keep the workforce able to work with reduced absences for sickness ,etc., and, consequently, greater production.

In 1795 the Company devised a project to provide adequate housing for the miners and their families. A ‘model’ village was built at Nenthead with clean water, a school, a washhouse with hot water, drying rooms and a company store where credit was available for those in hardship. Debts were often written off in cases of hardship. Smallholdings were made available for rent to encourage the miners to supplement their income by growing crops and keeping cattle. The first library and reading room in the country were built, a surgeon was provided and a brass band formed. The school started by Robert Stagg was opened in 1813. Other employers in the area, namely the Blackett Beaumont Company, were embarrassed into trying to match these benefits as they were having difficulty in recruiting and retaining their men in the face of these attractive conditions. The Quakers succeeded in creating a more healthy and prosperous community and prompted other landowners to reconsider the management of their own affairs. The Greenwich Hospital returned two-thirds of their royalties to local communities.

Many of the leading engineers of the day had, at some stage, worked in the area including George Stephenson, Thomas Sopwith, John Smeaton, William Armstrong and Westgarth Forster. Many important new processes were pioneered and subsequently used elsewhere. Huge quantities of lead ore were mined plus meaningful quantities of silver and zinc. Many people became rich. A good example is the case of the Hudgill Burn mine leased by the London Lead Company. They felt it to be uneconomic and allowed the lease to lapse and John and Jacob Wilson took it up in 1812. They decided that they would offer 500 £1 shares to local merchants, rather than take all the risk themselves. Two years later nothing had been produced and a further flotation of £360 was made. Within months a rich vein was struck and each £1 share became worth £17,500 – a lot of money in 1814.

At its peak the industry employed 2046 men but by 1880 the mines were considered to be largely worked out and, apart from a few small operations, mining in the North Pennines ceased. The area was quickly depopulated as people moved elsewhere for work. The considerable scars left by the mining operations were gradually covered by nature but the signs of the old workings are still readily visible in almost every corner of the Moor. What cannot be seen, but still remains, is the network of tunnels and passageways underground. These were so well built that many are still intact.

NOTE FOR PHOTOGRAPH

This picture shows a fork in a tunnel at Meathead. The left hand passage leads to workings in the Nenthead complex whilst to the right the passage runs to Garrigill. Note the high quality of the stonework.