>Does anyone have any information on mediaeval mining in the Caldbeck Fells?
Jean,
In 1319 copper/silver deposits in the Caldbeck Fells of Cumberland were
investigated but there is little evidence of sustained production although
mines were worked in Silvergill 'about 80 fathoms under the top of the
mountain' to an unknown depth prior to the arrival German miners in the area
in 1568.
(PRO Cal. Fine R., vol. 2, p. 389-90. Donald, Elizabethan Copper, 1955, p.
173, quoting a document from the Lowther MSS in the Cumbria Record Office.)
In 1331 three sites are identified in a Crown appointment to mine silver -
Minerdale and Silverbek, in Cumberland, and Harcla, in Westmoreland. (Cal.
Fine R., Vol. 4, p. 280 and 282) These appear to have been the product of a
search initiated twelve or thirteen years earlier (PRO Cal. Pat. R., Edw.
II, vol. 3, p. 273.) Harcla is Hartley, immediately south-east of Kirby
Stephen, where there are lead and copper deposits and evidence for early
lead smelting using a wind-blown bole hearth. ( Smith, AH. The Place-names
of Westmorland, 1967, p. 2. Geology of the Northern Pennine Orefield, Vol.
2, p. 115.) The two Cumberland sites are as yet unidentified. Silverbek
may be the stream of the same name, a tributary of Wiza Beck, south of
Wigton, although that is well outside known areas of mineralisation
(Armstrong, A M. The Place-names of Cumberland, 1950, p. 27.) They are
certainly not in the area of Tynehead in the manor of Alston, as suggested
by Blanchard. (Blanchard, Ian. Lothian and beyond: the economy of the
'English Empire' of David I, in Progress and problems in medieval England;
essays in honour of Edward Miller, eds. Richard Britnell and John Hatcher,
Cambridge, 1996, p. 27) The form of the Crown appointment precludes their
being in that manor. Control of the minerals there, including silver, was in
the hands of the miners and worked according to custom..
There is a strong possibility that Minerdale and Silverbek were in the
Caldbeck Fells, probably in the area of Roughtengill and Silvergill, but we
have no conclusive proof.
Peter
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
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