INDUSTRIES 



Whorlton and John del Graunge working at 

 breaking and washing antiquum dagwerk rema- 

 nentem ex antiquo in the park of Stanhope 



Some thirty years after"' (1457-8) the mine 

 at Harthope was in full working order, and four 

 of the lord's miners, John Dikson, Robert 

 Thompson, Robert Donken, and Robert Chap- 

 man, obtained at least twenty loads of lead-ore 

 there, which was carried to the ' boilhuls ' of 

 Kughtlaw or Kughteslaw. Other ore was ob- 

 tained at West Sedling, Hardrak, ' Esterblakden- 

 clogh,' ' Westerblakedenclogh,' East Sedling, and 

 ' Bersehawmede ' in Rookhope, various families and 

 partnerships of miners being mentioned. The 

 smelting took place at Wolsingham, ' Kughteslaw,' 

 and ' Fernelee,' and the bellows were carried from 

 one place to another, while at 'Kughteslaw' a 

 shed [logium) was made ' causa salvacionis follium 

 et aliorum instrumentorum ' of the lord bishop. 

 We also hear of ' 3 shole irens ' bought ' pro 

 cumulacione de le blakewerk,' and of a payment 

 of i?)d. to William Holme for carting nine 

 fothers of ' blakwerk a boilisted usque smeltyng 

 place.' "'' Robert Hogeson also earned id. for 

 taking two fothers of ' blakwerk ' from ' Kught- 

 law usque smeltyng place ibidem.' Probably 

 the oven or ' boilisted ' at ' Fernelee ' or ' Fer- 

 nelecrag ' was a new one, and we hear of earth, 

 stony clay, and 'blakwerk' being carried thither 

 apparently for building it. 



It is difficult to gather from the fragmentary 

 records left to us whether the output of the 

 Weardale lead-mines increased or decreased dur- 

 ing the fifteenth century. For the first year of 

 Bishop Booth, 1457-8, there seems to be a con- 

 siderable decrease of output as compared with 

 thirty years before, and a still further decrease ^^ in 

 the third and fourthyearsof Bishop Fox (1497-8), 

 but this may be quite accidental, or owing to 

 deliberate restriction. At any rate, in the time ^' 

 of Bishop Ruthall (lO-ii years) the number of 

 loads of lead-ore bought from tenants in Wear- 

 dale had risen to no less than 300 at 5$. a load, 

 the miners winning the same at their own 

 charges. In 1523-4^^ (i, 2 Wolsey) we hear 

 of 330 loads {summagia) of lead-ore bought of the 



"" Eccl. Com. Mins. Accts. 1900 16. 



'"■ Probably the slag of the ' boiling ' was to be 

 treated again in the more powerful smelting-hearth. 

 Nearly 150 years before we hear not only of the 

 * bolers ' near the mines of Birland in Devon ' com- 

 burencium et fundencium mineram per bolas,' but also 

 of the furnace-men {foitieUarii) with their blowers 

 ' conflantibus et fundentibus nigrum opus et albam 

 minam ' ; Exch. Accts. K.R. bdle. 260, No. 19, m. 4. 

 In addition, at Birland, where the ore was richly 

 argentiferous, we hear of the 'astra affinacionum ' or 

 finery-hearths for extracting the precious metal. 



'^ Eccl. Com. Mins. Accts. 1 9001 7 ; 70 loads 

 40 stone of ore were then bought from miners. 



" Ibid. 220221. 



" Ibid. 1 9901 8. 



Weardale tenants at 5/. a load. The carriage of 

 these to the ' Balehills ' of Wolsingham and 

 Stanhope cost j^i4 125. bd. At this time appa- 

 rently, with improved methods of smelting, 

 5i loads of ore produced about one fother of 

 lead,^' and of the sixty fothers [plaustratas) made 

 in that year, thirty had been sold to Gilbert 

 Middleton, merchant of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

 while thirty still remained at Sandhill in that 

 town unsold at the time of the account. 



It is probable that the great drawback to the 

 lead industry in Durham in the reign of 

 Henry VIII was not so much a scarcity of ore as 

 the increasing difficulty of getting sufficient char- 

 coal fuel. We know that Wolsey attempted to 

 smelt lead with pit-coal, but apparently with but 

 poor success, and about 1527 granted^" to 

 Thomas Wynter a great house and furnace near 

 Gateshead, and all mines of metals and minerals 

 within the bishopric and the country called Wear- 

 dale for the term of thirty years at the rent of 

 ;^5 per annum. 



Of the later history of lead-mining in the 

 county of Durham the merest outline can be 

 given here. During the long episcopate of Bishop 

 Tunstall, the lead-mines of the Weardale were 

 still apparently leased at a rent of £'^ a year,"' 

 and about 1595, in the time of Bishop Toby Mat- 

 thew, we hear "^ of William Vaux paying 50^. 

 for the lead-mines for Michaelmas term, besides 

 the 5 Of. received by Oswald Baker at Lady Day, 

 and also of 26;. id. paid by Henry Chapman for 

 a mine at Hollerbush, which had apparently for- 

 merly brought in 5 31. i\.d. a year to the exchequer 

 of the bishop. By 1626 the lead-mines, which 

 had been leased at ^^5 a year, were apparently in 

 the bishop's own hands.^^ 



Hitherto we have been obliged to confine our 

 attention to the lead-mines of Weardale, as very 

 iew notices remain of those in Teesdale or 

 the Derwent Valley, which were not the 

 property of the bishop. It is possible that some 

 of these may have been worked at a very 

 early time. In the survey-'' made of the for- 

 feited estates of the earl of Westmorland, after 

 the northern rising in the reign of Elizabeth, we 

 read under the account of Eggleston, that Sir 

 George Bowes holds the easement of a hill ' ad 

 plumbum suum triandum,' and that he pays for 

 it an annual rent of 2j. as of ancient custom to 

 the lord of the marfbr. Probably this was a 

 ' bole-hill ' similar to those already described. 

 During part of the seventeenth century the Tees- 



" Early in the reign of Hen. VIII, 1 509-1 1, the 

 monies of Durham were buying Weardale lead at j^3 

 the fother ; Dur. Acct. R. (Surtees Soc. xcix-ciii), 660. 



'" Dur. Curs. No. 73, m. 2 (20 Hen. VIII). 



" Eccl. Com. Various, 220204 '""'^ 220238. It is 

 possible there was a customary royalty in kind as well. 



*■ Ibid. 220184. 



" Ibid. 220193. 



" Misc. Books Exch. 37. 



351 



