A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



dale lead mines ^^ were apparently held by Sir 

 William Hudleston on a lease or assignment, the 

 forfeited estates having passed into the hands of 

 the Vane family. On the accession of Charles I 

 the duke of Buckingham received a grant of the 

 silver and lead mines of Muggleswick and the 

 district ten miles round on a twenty-one years' 

 lease.=^> 



After the Restoration the Weardale mines 

 continued to be worked on lease by Humphrey 

 Wharton, who sold his interest to W. Blackett 

 about 1696. The royalty paid to the bishop 

 seems to have been about one load in nine of the 

 ore. Apparently trouble arose owing to the 

 claims of the rector of Stanhope, but he established 

 his case, and a tithe of lead ore was decreed to 

 him after a verdict in his favour on trial at law.^" 



The next important event in the history of the 

 lead-mines of Durham may be said to have been 

 the extension to Durham of the operations of 

 the company generally spoken of as ' The London 

 Lead Company,' the full title of which, according 

 to its charter, is ' The Governor and Company 

 for smelting down Lead with Pit Coal and Sea 

 Coal,' which was founded in London in the year 

 1692 under a charter of William and Mary. It 

 was originally formed for taking over lead smelt- 

 ing works at Bownham near Bristol from Sir 

 Talbot Clerke, but soon extended its operations 

 to Wales, and in 1704 acquired also the Ryton 

 works in ' Aldstone Moor.' About 1725 mines 

 were acquired in the manor of Muggleswick in 

 Durham, beside others in Swaledale, Yorkshire. 

 In 1745 the company took a lease of the mines 

 of ' Redgroves,' Rampsgill, and ' Bromgill' from the 

 Commissioners of Greenwich Hospital, and finally, 

 in 1 77 1, a lease of ' Mannen Gill ' and ' Hake- 

 bridge ' from the earl of Darlington, and ' a lease 

 of Mineral Ground from Timothy Hutchinson in 

 the Common of Eggleston with a smelt-mill at a 

 rental of £6 per annum and ^ duty.' Thus 

 commenced the long connexion of the London 

 Lead Company with the Teesdale district, which 

 continued up to the close of the company's opera- 

 tions in 1905, the smelting works at Eggleston 

 remaining in work to the last. In 1792 the 

 company abandoned all its other mines and con- 

 centrated its operations in the dales of Durham 

 and the adjoining portions of Yorkshire. In 1801 

 a lease of several mines and a smelt-mill at Stan- 

 hope was taken at a rental- of ^^30 and a royalty 

 of one-sixth, and in 1803 of the manors of Patter- 

 dale and Ravenstonedale from Lord Lowther, and 

 of the manor of Cregill from Lord Darlington, at 

 a royalty of one-fifth. 



Further, sixteen leases of mines from Green- 

 wich Hospital were executed in 1808, and the 

 importance of the company's holdings may be 

 gauged by the fact that they satisfied the demand 



" Stowe MS. (B.M.), 1046, fol. 88. 



"a Surtees, Dur. ii, 361. 



*' Martin, Index to Rec. l^ja. 



made by the bishop of Durham in 1809 for 

 royalties from the Weardale mines by the payment 

 of over ^^5,000. Up to 1850 or thereabouts the 

 company enjoyed a period of great prosperity, but 

 gradually the output of lead diminished, the ore 

 became progressively poorer in silver, and these 

 facts, together with the low price of metals that 

 characterized the end of the nineteenth century, 

 caused this famous old company to cease opera- 

 tions in the year 1905. 



Bailey, in the General View of the Agriculture 

 of the County of Durham^'' states that in the year 

 1809 there were working in the county eighty- 

 six lead mines, namely : in Weardale on the 

 north side of the river, twenty mines, of which 

 ten belonged to the bishop of Durham, all of 

 which were leased to Colonel Beaumont ; in 

 Weardale, on the south side of the river, fourteen 

 mines, seven of which belonged to the bishop of 

 Durham, and seven mines also were leased to 

 Colonel Beaumont ; in Teesdale forty-eight 

 mines, of which forty-two belonged to the earl of 

 Darlington, and six were leased to the London 

 Lead Company ; in the Derwent valley four 

 mines ; there were also four smelt-mills in the 

 Derwent valley, three in Weardale, and three in 

 Teesdale. Of the whole number of mines then 

 at work, the most profitable were Jeffries' Rake 

 in the Derwent valley, Brandon Wells, Wolf 

 Cleugh, Breckon Side,^* Pasture Grove, and 

 Coves in Weardale, and Wiregill, Marlebeck 

 Head, Old Pike Law, High Langdon Grass 

 Hill and Ashgill Head in Teesdale. From 

 many of the others little ore was raised, and 

 some were working at a considerable loss. 



According to Westgarth Forster -^ there were 

 in 1 82 1 thirty-six mines at work in Weardale 

 and thirty-eight in Teesdale, the former produc- 

 ing about 1 7,000 bings and the latter about 8,000 

 bings of lead ore per annum. The yield of 

 metallic lead was about I ton from 4J bings 

 (36 cwt.) of ore. The smelt-mills were at 

 Rookhope, Gleaton (High, Middle and Lower 

 Mills), Gandless, Stanhope, Bodyhope, Edmond- 

 byers, Jeffries and Healeyfield. 



In the year 1905 there were only eleven mines at 

 work in the whole county ;'" the Weardale mines 

 produced only 2,553 tons of lead ore, all the 

 others together only 335 tons, making the pro- 

 duce of the entire county 2,888 tons of ore, equal 



''Op. cit. 37. 



''This famous mine of Breckon Side or Breckon 

 Syke is said to have at one time yielded nearly 10,000 

 bings (i bing = 8 cwt.) of lead ore in one year ; 

 Forster, Strata (3rd edit.), 148. 



'' Op. cit. 304 et seq. 



'"These were Cow Green at Harwood Fell, Flush 

 O'Mea, Lady Rake in Teesdale, Pike Law in New- 

 biggin, Wiregill Deep in Teesdale, with the following 

 mines of the Weardale Lead Company, Bolt's Burn, 

 Craig's Level, Groverake, Killhope and Sedling, all 

 in Stanhope and Wolf Cleugh; Mines and Quarries 

 Gen. Rep. and Statistics, 239. 



