29-457: The North of England Lead Mining Museum , better known as Killhope , is an industrial museum near the village of Cowshill , County Durham, England. The museum stands on the site of the former Park Level Mine, which is being restored to show the workings of a 19th-century lead mine. The museum is located alongside the Killhope Burn , about 4 km upstream from Cowshill, and is accessible via
58-656: A "Georgie lamp") to prevent firedamp explosions, rather than the Davy lamp used elsewhere. An alternative explanation relates that during the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 the people of Newcastle declared their allegiance to the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, George I and George II ; whereas the rest of the county of Northumberland , to the north, stood loyal to James Francis Edward Stuart . While Newcastle upon Tyne had been an important local centre since Roman times, and
87-617: A monopoly which lasted a considerable time. A well-known group of workers on the river were the keelmen who handled the keels , boats that carried the coal from the riverbanks to the waiting colliers. The Derwent (valley) , a major tributary of the Tyne that rises in County Durham , saw the development of the steel industry from around 1600 onwards. This was led by German immigrant cutlers and sword-makers, probably from around Solingen , who fled from religious persecution at home and settled in
116-566: A race, the odds changing as the fortunes of the contestants changed. Contestants who became champions of the Tyne would often challenge the corresponding champions of the River Thames, and the race would be arranged to take place on one of the two rivers. Rivalry between the Tyne and the Thames was very keen, and rowers who upheld the honour of the Tyne became local heroes. Three such oarsmen, who came from humble backgrounds and became household names in
145-595: Is located in Cowshill, and is the parish church for Heatherycleugh parish. Bridge End Cottage is notable for being a 17th-century Bastle house , and is a Grade II listed building. The Cowshill War Memorial commemorates the seven men from the area lost in the First World War and three who died in the Second World War. Burtree Ford was once considered a separate village, now considered as part of Cowshill, but its name
174-583: Is still a working shipyard in Wallsend . From early in the 19th century, it was a custom to hold boat races on the Tyne. The Tyne had a large number of keelmen and wherrymen, who handled boats as part of their jobs. As on the River Thames , there were competitions to show who was the best oarsman. As a wherryman did not earn very much, competitive rowing was seen as a quick way of earning extra money. Regattas were held, and provided modest prizes for professionals, but
203-570: Is still apparent in Burtree Farm, and Burtreeford Bridge, over Killhope Burn, and the former Burtreeford Mill. [REDACTED] Media related to Cowshill at Wikimedia Commons This County Durham location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in Northern England . Residents of
232-530: The Wearside Built-up Area instead of Tyneside. In both the 2001 and 2011 census the area was given the following subdivisions; Gateshead, Jarrow and Tynemouth had boundary changes: The people of Newcastle, called " Geordies ", have a reputation for their distinctive dialect and accent. Newcastle may have been given this name, a local diminutive of the name "George", because their miners used George Stephenson 's safety lamp (invented in 1815 and called
261-558: The A689 road between Stanhope, County Durham and Alston, Cumbria . It is situated in the heart of the North Pennines , Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , an area that, in 2003, was designated the first Geopark in Great Britain. The museum is open every day between 1 April and 31 October, but is closed (except to pre-booked groups) during the winter months, when weather conditions in
290-595: The Durham County Council took over the site and began a programme of restoration. First to be restored was the "mineshop", which was opened to the public in May 1984. The Killhope Wheel was restored to working order in 1991 and the mine itself was opened in 1996. It had been hoped that the existing mine could be restored to allow access by the public, but though the Park Level was found to be generally in sound condition, and
319-618: The Durham Dales Centre in Stanhope produces guides to a Lead Mining Trail that covers many of the more accessible sites. Other disused lead mines in County Durham are: Cowshill Cowshill is a village in the civil parish of Stanhope , in County Durham , England. It is situated at the top of Weardale , between Lanehead and Wearhead . In the 2001 census Cowshill had a population of 156. The Church of St Thomas (1912)
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#1732851102390348-648: The North East, were Harry Clasper , Robert Chambers and James Renforth . Clasper was a champion rower in fours, as well as an innovative boat designer and a successful rowing coach. Chambers and Renforth were oarsmen who excelled at sculling . Both held the World Sculling Championship at different times. The popularity of all three men was such that when they died, many thousands attended their funeral processions, and magnificent funeral monuments were provided by popular subscription in all three cases. At
377-467: The Tyne are joint with Wearside which is in both the ceremonial counties of Durham ( Chester-le-Street ) and Tyne and Wear . The ONS 2011 census had 774,891 census respondents inside the "Tyneside Built-up Area" or "Tyneside Urban Area". These figures are a decline from 879,996; this loss was mainly due to the ONS reclassifying Hetton-le-Hole , Houghton-le-Spring , Chester-le-Street and Washington in
406-593: The area are commonly referred to as Geordies . The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt . The population of Tyneside as published in the 2011 census was 774,891, making it the eighth most-populous urban area in the United Kingdom . In 2013, the estimated population was 832,469. Politically, the area is mainly covered by the metropolitan boroughs of Newcastle-upon-Tyne , Gateshead , North Tyneside and South Tyneside . The boroughs on
435-532: The area can be severe. A bus service operates through Weardale; services usually terminate at Cowshill, but some summer services will continue to Killhope on request. Lead ore in the North Pennines occurs in mineralised veins within the Carboniferous rocks of the area. Until the mid-19th century, exploitation of these ore bodies was mostly confined to surface excavations and vertical shafts. From 1818, mining in
464-612: The area was controlled by W B Lead Co, a mining company established by the Blacketts , a prominent Newcastle family which had leased mining rights in Weardale from the Bishop of Durham. In 1853, W B Lead began driving the Park Level Mine, which eventually intersected 11 mineral veins. As the mine developed, so did the surface workings. In 1858, a "mineshop" was built to accommodate the miners;
493-457: The big money was made in challenge races, in which scullers or boat crews would challenge each other to a race over a set distance for a side stake. The crews would usually have backers, who would put up the stake money, as they saw the chance of financial gain from the race. In the days before mass attendances at football matches, races on the river were enormously popular, with tens of thousands attending. Betting would go on both before and during
522-587: The casts faithfully represent the appearance and texture of the real rock. One of the main features of the reconstructed mine is the Killhope Wheel, a 10-metre-diameter metal waterwheel. This was constructed by the Tyneside firm of William Armstrong . Although other waterwheels were used in and around the mine, this was the largest, and the only one to survive the decades of neglect. It has now been restored to full working order. The museum has won several awards: it
551-494: The end of the 19th century professional competitive rowing on the Tyne began a gradual decline and would die out entirely leaving the amateur version. Despite its rapid growth in the Industrial Revolution , Tyneside developed one peculiar local custom, the rapper sword dance, which later spread to neighbouring areas of Northumberland and County Durham. During the 1970s and 1980s, there was major industrial decline in
580-525: The first 100 metres has been used as an access route, the area in the vicinity of the first vein workings was badly collapsed and unsafe. Reconstruction therefore consisted of constructing a new 'artificial' mine within a chamber that was excavated from the surface. Within this artificial mine, the rock surfaces are actually fibreglass casts, taken not just from Killhope but also from mines in the Nenthead district in nearby Cumbria . Despite their artificial nature,
609-404: The period before 1818, for which there are no records, it is thought that total output from Killhope may have exceeded 60,000 tonnes. In addition, 180 tonnes of zinc concentrates were recovered in the 1950s by treatment of some of the waste material. By 1980, the Killhope Wheel was facing demolition, the washing floor had become a marshy field, and the rest of the site was decaying. In that year,
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#1732851102390638-410: The population density in such a remote area was very low and, until then, miners had been faced with a long daily walk to and from the mine. In 1862, storage bays ("bouse teams") were constructed, to store the raw lead ore (the "bouse"), and washing rakes were installed, in which water was used to separate the lead ore in the bouse from the waste material. In 1878, soon after the mine struck the richest of
667-457: The port of Newcastle from the mid 14th century onwards. Tyneside had a strategic advantage as far as the coal trade was concerned, because collier brigs could be loaded with coal on the Tyne and could sail down the east coast to London. In fact, the burgesses of Newcastle formed a cartel, and were known as the Hostmen . The Hostmen were able gain a monopoly over all of the coal exported from Tyneside,
696-464: The then village of Shotley Bridge , near Consett . The combination of coal and steel industries in the area was the catalyst for further major industrial development in the 19th century, including the shipbuilding industry; at its peak, the Tyneside shipyards were one of the largest centres of shipbuilding in the world and built an entire navy for Japan in the first decade of the 20th century. There
725-408: The traditional British heavy industries , and Tyneside was hit hard. High unemployment rates and the national [Thatcher] government's resolve to push through with economic transformation led to great social unrest with strikes and occasional rioting in depressed areas. From the late 1980s onward, an improving national economy and local regeneration helped the area to recover, and although unemployment
754-628: The veins, the Park Level Mill was brought into operation, to speed up the process of washing the ore. The main feature of the mill was a large waterwheel , the "Killhope Wheel". Not long after the Park Level Mill came into use, the price of lead plummeted, rendering lead-mining in Weardale uneconomic and, in 1883, W B Lead closed all of its operations in the district. The Park Level Mine was taken over by another company, Weardale Lead, which continued to operate it until 1910, when production ceased. The mine
783-469: Was a major local market town from the Middle Ages, the development of Newcastle and Tyneside is owed to coal mining . Coal was first known to be dug in Tyneside from superficial seams in around 1200, but there is some evidence from Bede 's writings that it may have been dug as early as 800 AD. Coal was dug from local drift mines and bell pits , and although initially only used locally, it was exported from
812-474: Was re-opened briefly in 1916, during the First World War, after which it lay derelict for over 60 years, during which time the buildings crumbled and any equipment that could be removed was salvaged for scrap. Between 1818 and 1883, records show that W B Lead extracted over 31,200 tonnes of lead concentrates from the Killhope operations; between 1884 and 1916, Weardale Lead extracted a further 9,000 tonnes. Taking in
841-735: Was the North East's Small Visitor Attraction of the Year in 2008, and was the inaugural winner of the Guardian's Family-Friendly Museum award in 2004. Other interpretive sites in the area are the Heritage Centre at Allenheads , in Northumberland, and the Nenthead Mines Heritage Centre, a short distance away in Cumbria. Numerous traces of Weardale's lead mining industry can still be seen and
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