Research Projects

by Shirley Waldock

Lead is a mineral, being forced up from the molten core of the earth through cracks and fissures in surrounding rocks. It cannot be identified as coming from a particular vein, but its area of origin can be determined by other minerals or rocks that are incorporated in the ore. It is interesting to note that the present day prized fluorspar was a waste by-product of the washing process of the lead ore, and waste heaps or “deads” have been worked over for the extraction of the fluorspar.

The veins of lead ore are therefore predominantly vertical, with side veins branching out from a shaft in all direction. All the lead veins were measured in fathoms and along its length the name changed in order to distinguish a working length, being approximately 1,200 yards in length. East, West, North were identifying names, as was “cross veins” but for the South side of a vein the word “sun” was used.

Some examples of the names of lead ore veins:

Hanging Shaw East End, Windy Brow West End

Galligill North Vein, Bentyfields Sun Veins

Leehouse Well Cross Vein

At first, when a lead vein was found outcropping from surrounding rocks, the method known as ‘hushing’ was used to wash the surface earth from the hillside to expose the vein. Earth dams were built across streams high up on the hillside and in due time the dam was breached and the water rushed down the hillside and swept away earth leaving the lead ore vein exposed. Sometimes a lead vein would be exposed naturally in a stream. These ‘hushes’ changed the landscape and many can be seen today in the dales.

When all the lead had been taken in this way the lead vein could be followed into the hillside by the means of an adit, or a shaft could be dug down to contact the vein deeper in the hillside. The miners experience would assist them in determining where to dig their shaft. Knowledge of geology was not very high in the 17th century, but Thomas Sopwith (Agent for the London Lead Company) described the miners as ‘practical geologists’.

The adits were horizontal tunnels, called ‘levels’ or ‘drifts’ dug into the hillside, either following a vein or making its way towards a vertical shaft. There was no profit from the rocks that contained no lead ore, the ‘deads’, and so this work was kept to a minimum by making tunnels as small as was practicable. All the lead-bearing ore as well as the ‘deads’ had to be brought out of the mine through the tunnel in ‘kibbles’(a type of metal tub), which in the early days were often drawn by children along wooden rails.

Again, when it became necessary to dig a shaft down to connect with an ore-bearing vein, this was kept as narrow as possible in order to avoid unnecessary, unprofitable work removing more ‘deads’ than was necessary. If the shaft was deep with a lot of deads to be removed, small shelves were constructed in the shaft on which the deads would be left and some still left today.

The miners descended these narrow shafts by means of wooden pegs positioned in the sides of the shaft in such a way as to enable them to use hands and feet alternately from side to side in the form of a ladder. Children, with their shorter arms and legs, were carried down on the shoulders of their fathers and were then left to load up the ore or the deads into kibbles which were hauled up through the shaft to the surface by a ‘whimsey’ (a small roller) placed across the top of the shaft on which to wind up the kibble by hand or by horse-power.

In the early days the children often as young as six years old undertook these tasks although the companies later would not permit children under the age of 14 years to work underground. Galloway ponies were later used to bring the lead ore and the deads out of the mines along levels that were sometimes as much as a mile long.

These early mining activities would have been in reasonably close proximity to the miners' homes and so they could travel to and from the mine on a daily basis, leaving time for them to tend to their few cattle and other small-scale farming activities. However, once these veins had been worked out, the productive veins would have been further away from home and even in more isolated areas.

There was a tradition of miners lodging with other miners or with farmers and as the industry grew the landowners built special ‘mining-shops’ to house the miners during the week. To these mining-shops the miner would travel early on a Monday morning (or Sunday evening) taking with him his ‘wallet’ (a cloth bag that he would sling over his shoulders) containing all he needed in the way of clothing and food for the week as well as the candles, which he had also to provide. This meant, of course, that his wife would be left to look after any farm animals that they had until the miner/farmer returned from the mining-shop.

This is part of a series of projects, others are listed below:

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 1) - introduction

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 2) - land ownership and mineral rights

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 4) - washing the ore

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 5) - schools

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 6) - conclusion

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 7) - the bargain system

Weardale Lead Mining (Part 8) - references

Digitised by Sarah Irving

Note: The views that are expressed on the website are the contributors own and not necessarily those of Durham County Council. This is a community website so no guarantee can be given of the historical accuracy of individual contributions