Steeped in history

The Beaumont Lead Company started mining on the Barney Craig Horse Level in the 1970s. This building would have been built a little later, possible in the 1820s or 30s.

The mine was the centre of a huge community and at one time employed more than 500 people. In 1861 there were 44 houses in the Coalcleugh and Carrshield area, and most of the farms were occupied by miners or smelters and other people connected to the mine. In 1857 the chief agent of the London Lead Company reported that on Alston Moor, “The population is so mixed up, the farming with the mining population, that they are almost all as one”.

There was not enough private accommodation to serve all the miners and many of them lived in scattered smallholdings, so the mining company provided ‘Lodging Shops’. The Barney Craig Mine Shop is the biggest in the North Pennines. As well as giving the miners a place to eat and sleep, it also contained two blacksmiths’ forges and other workshops.

By 1880 the lead deposit was regarded as exhausted, but in 1899 the Vieille Montagne Zinc Co reopened the workings to mine for zinc ore and mining continued until 1913. Further reworking of the deposits was carried out in 1950 by the Allendale Metalliferous Mining Company.

Looking at the wild landscape that now surrounds us, it is strange to think that this was once one of the most heavily industrialised upland areas in Britain.

During the 18^th and 19^th centuries Britain became the main producer of lead in the world and the North Pennines was the main lead producing area in Britain. About a third of the country’s lead came from this area.