INDUSTRIES 



to 2,039 tons of lead and 14,462 oz. of silver, the 

 ore production being just about one-tenth of what 

 it was fifty years ago. The once flourishing lead- 

 mining districts now present a dismal picture of 

 decay, many of the districts formerly occupied by 

 the miners now being almost depopulated. The 

 only company still doing any considerable amount 

 of work is the Weardale Lead Company, Limited, 

 some of whose deep mining at Stanhope Burn is 

 giving promising results, whilst the principal mine, 

 Bolt's Burn, is doing extremely well, producing 

 about 7,000 bings of ore yearly, the increase 

 in the price of lead in 1906 having been of great 

 assistance to this company. 



IRON 



No authentic record exists of the origin of 

 iron-mining between the Tyne and Tees. It is 

 however probable that as in Gloucestershire and 

 Sussex surface deposits may have been worked by 

 the Romans or even before their time, 1 but the 

 first specific notice that remains to us is no earlier 

 than the second half of the twelfth century. 

 Bishop Hugh Pudsey, whom we have already seen 

 working the lead and silver mines of his bishopric, 

 granted * to the Hospital of St. Giles at Durham 

 ' a mine of iron within Rokehope for making 

 ploughs and other necessaries.' It is also worth 

 notice that this mine was situate in the same dis- 

 trict which at the present day still provides the 

 meagre output of iron-ore credited to the county 

 of Durham. Early in the following century 

 there is ample evidence that iron was being pro- 

 duced to a considerable extent within the Pala- 

 tinate, and the records of sales of the bars wrought 

 in the bishop's forges appear regularly on the ac- 

 counts* of the see in the few years for which 

 these arc extant. For the period from Midsum- 

 mer to Martinmas ( i o John), Aimeric, archdeacon 

 of Durham, and Philip de Ulecote render account 

 of 1141. for 733 hens and 624 bars (esperdutis) of 

 iron sold. In the year following there is a return 

 of ,93 4-. 9i</-> the value of perquisites of the 

 forest with pannage-money, the issues of the ferry 

 of Howden, 4 and iron sold. In the two follow- 

 ing years the issues of the forests with pannage 

 and iron sold amounted to 105 ijs. id. and 

 10s. id. respectively. Owing to a system 



1 The ' cinders ' or slag found in uch enormous 

 quantities on the Durham moorlands and attributed 

 by early antiquaries to the Danes, are probably for the 

 most part the refuse of the mediaeval forges. A small 

 portion may however go back to an earlier time. 



' Boldon Book (Surtees Soc. xxv), App. p. xlvi. 



1 As already stated the early records of the bishopric 

 of Durham have been to a great extent destroyed. 

 Happily a few accounts when the see was vacant are 

 entered on the great rolls of the national exchequer. 

 See Fife Rollt for Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham 

 (Soc. of Antiq. of Newcastle-on-Tyne), 197 et seq. 



'The amount derived from the ferry was a small 

 amount varying from four to eight or at most twelve 

 marks at this time. 



of accountancy which classes fowls and iron to- 

 gether it is difficult to obtain any precise idea of 

 the amount of iron obtained at this time from the 

 mines of the bishop. These evidently lay within 

 his forest, doubtless in Weardale,* and furnished a 

 valuable portion of the forest issues, as in the 

 parallel instance of the Forest of Dean. The 

 mention of iron sent to Ireland and of 1,260 

 shovels, 240 spades, 160 picks, and 100 hatchets 

 sent to Wales, may also point to the activity of 

 the iron industry within the Palatinate. In the 

 Pipe Roll 14 John (1213), the issues of the 

 forest with pannage and iron sold are returned at 

 130 Ji. 3^., while the profit of the lead-mines 

 amounted to j6o Ss. id., besides twenty-one 

 loads [of lead] which the king had. It is also 

 noted that 1,070 bars of iron had been bought 

 and placed in the castle of Norham, and that 

 III*. 2d. had been paid for anchors and other 

 armament for the king's great ship which came 

 from Portsmouth, while the manufacture* of 

 97,175 quarrels cost /88 i8f. 2d. Besides this 

 we read on the same Pipe Roll of 320 bars of 

 iron sent from Newcastle to Portsmouth, and of 

 700 horse-shoes with nails, and of 1,060 shovels 

 sent to Chester. In short, the consideration of 

 the entries in these Pipe Rolls certainly suggests 

 a considerable output of iron in and around the 

 Palatinate of Durham, even allowing for a certain 

 importation from abroad. 



About a century later there is again significant 

 evidence 7 that the Weardale mines were still 

 productive, for the annual issues of the forges 

 between Tyne and Tees are returned at 

 ,15 1 61. It is possible that this sum represents 

 the value of the smelters' licences, 8 or the amount 

 at which the forges as a whole were farmed or 

 leased. In 1368 we hear of a bloomery in 

 Gordon and Evenwood leased * by Bishop Hat- 

 field through his forester, Alan de Shotlington, 

 to John de Merley and three others for a term 

 of years, while towards the close of that century 



' It is of course possible, but not very probable, that 

 at this time the bishop owned iron-mines outside 

 the boundaries of the present county of Durham. 



* As in the Forest of Dean, so in the Palatinate of 

 Durham, the manufacture of quarrels was continued 

 during the reign of Henry III. ' Et in quarellis fab- 

 ricandis in episcopatu et flechandis et pennandis ad 

 opus Regis ad balistas de j pede et ij pedibus 29 I zi. SJ. 

 per breve eiusdem,' and again, ' In cariagio xxxv mi- 

 liarum quarellorum a Dunelmo usque Londoniam ~,' 

 Pipe R. 13 Hen. Ill, m.i. The forest wood and iron 

 in both Gloucestershire and Durham invited and 

 almost rendered inevitable the manufacture of such 

 material of war. 



' Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 1144, No. 17, 

 4 Edw. II. 



1 In the Forest of Dean in 1282 the annual licence 

 paid to the constable of St. Briavels for each forge at 

 work the whole year through was Ji. 



Hutchinson, Hut. of Dur. iii, 338 ; Boyle, Guide 

 to Dur. 115. 



353 



45 



