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Nenthead & the surrounding area – A Potted History |
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At a height of 1450 ft, Nenthead can boast to being the highest village in England. The hill on which it stands, from its lower to its upper lanes, rises to nearly 1600 ft. In Nenthead, agriculture and mining existed side by side for centuries, despite the difficulties of the high surrounding fells and the severe winter weather.
The children of all employees, girls as well as boys, underwent the first compulsory schooling in the country, and for a while the wages were linked to the price of corn, a very early instance of index linking. Nenthead still displays many buildings, which owe their existence to the London Lead Company including The Miners Arms. The village hall was built in 1818 by the company as a school for 200 pupils.
The cottages of Hillersdon Terrace were built by the company for
their skilled workers in the 1820s, as part of their planned village.
'The Row', also known as Gillgill Lane, is where the first
of the company’s cottages were built in the 1750’s before
the growth of the planned village.
The mining days in Nenthead are long since over, and the village is much quieter with something of its original appearance now visible with the wonderful variety of wild flowers blooming in the spring and the summer contributing to the beauty of the fells and valleys.
The exhibits include the
restored former
Stamps building located to the south-east of the Rampgill complex,
the Barracks building which is close to the Assay House, the
Smeltmill Complex, the single storey Workshop lying to the
south-west of the Barracks and the Carrs
In the twenty years we have been at the Miners Arms we have restored the pub to something of its former character. Taking the walls back to their original stone and using old pitch pews for the seating taken from the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The warm cosy atmosphere is enhanced by the wood burning stoves at either end of the bar.
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Nenthead – the story of Nenthead begins in 1753 with the extension
by the London Lead Company of an existing smelt mill and mine buildings
at Rampgill and the building of a group of cottages close to them.
In 1825 a 'model' village was planned and built by the
company providing housing and a wide range of welfare facilities,
many of which still exist today. 
This
high, once glaciated valley did not attract large numbers of
settlers until relatively
recent times. By mediaeval times it
was sparsely populated, and it was mentioned in 1315 as ' 23 tenants
in the valley of Nent and Corbrig-gate'. However it was already
a hugely important area and those tenants may well have been miners
as well as farmers as Alston moor was known for the 'silver
mines of Carlisle'. During the part of the week spent at the
often remote mines, the men lived on the fell side in cottages of
turf and stone. These early mines supplied lead for the roofs of
the Cathedrals of Britain and their high silver content went to
a Royal Mint, specially established for this purpose in Carlisle.
The key factor in the
development of Nenthead was the huge smelt-mill
built in 1738 by Colonel Liddell. He held the lease on the Rampgill
mine 'on which he expected great profits', when these
failed to materialise he was forced to sell. The smelt-mill’s
great potential to process lead ore attracted the London Lead Company,
who in 1753 took up leases on most of the mines in the area. The
London Lead Company had an enormous influence on life in Nenthead,
with their planned village, social reforms and benevolent attitudes. 
The
Reading Room was the first free library in England, built by the
company in 1833. All company workers were encouraged to read and
study, especially technical subjects and chemistry, in order to
develop the superior smelting techniques, which were essential if
the company was to maintain its reputation for the best quality lead
and silver on the market. The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was already
well attended, for Methodism was, and remains, a strong faith in the
area, following John Wesley’s visits in 1748 and 1770.
Smallcleugh mine is renowned for its excellent dry-stone arching.
Here, as in other mines, the ore was brought out by ponies wearing
head gear and leather coats to protect them from knocks and the cold
water dripping from the mine roof. In 1901, food prepared in the
Miners Arms was taken on mine wagons into Smallcleugh Mine to a
large worked –out area known as the Ballroom Flat, where a
banquet was held. There is a photograph of the Ballroom hanging
in the Miners Arms, along side many other photographs of the mining
days. 
Since 1996 the Nenthead Mines
Heritage Centre has been open. It is a 200 acres site of rugged
Pennine landscape at the heart of the North Pennines Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty and is the largest and most important
single site associated with the lead mining industry of the North
Pennines. The Heritage Centre tells the story of this unique and
dramatic site - now a Scheduled Ancient Monument - where history and
landscape have been forged together. 
Mineshop which stands in
isolation to the south-east of the Smeltmill, not far from the
entrance to Carrs Level. About quarter of a mile of the Carrs
Level mine has been restored and you can explore underground
through an extensive network of
tunnels which dramatically show the history of lead
mining for the past 250 years. You can also drop a virtual stone
into Brewery shaft, a 300ft shaft which drops down to the Nent
Level, a underground waterway.
The
Power of Water' exhibit takes you through the history of water
wheels and you can make the machinery work with the pull of a lever
of two._edited.jpg)
The Miners Arms was the original village inn. The four inns and
public houses in Nenthead were used more for travellers accommodation
than for drinking. In the 18th century a complaint was registered
'the temperance Society has ruined the Inn'. This led
to the rent for the Miners Arms being reduced several times after
the London Lead Company bought it in 1823 as it was said that the
'miners preferred books to drink'.