*The Foreigners in the Hills -* Alastair F Robertson, SB, 147mm x 210mm,
114pp, B&W Photos £9.95 + P&P
This book tells the story of Belgian mining company 'Vieille Montagne' who
arrived in the North Pennines in 1896 to extract zinc and lead ore. .
(Review from the Times and Star) The Lowest of the Low Countries had a
major role to play in the South Tyne Valley for over half a century. For it
was a Belgian company, the Vielle Montagne Zinc company, which breathed new
life into the moribund lead mines of Alston Moor. And before the European
Economic Community was just a twinkle in a Brussels bureaucrat’s eye, the
company was bringing workers to the South Tyne not only from Belgium. but
from Italy, Switzerland, France and Hungary too. The Belgian invasion is
the subject of a fascinating new book The Foreigners in the Hills by Alston
historian Alastair F. Robertson. He tells how the international brigade not
only brought new technology and techniques to keep alive the mines, but
also married local girls, and raised families in Nenthead. Lead mining had
gone on all over Alston Moor from Roman times, but from the 1860s, the
industry went into steep decline, as reserves were worked out, costs grew
dearer and foreign competition grew fiercer. The London Lead Company, which
had ruled the mines for 180 years, abruptly sold out to the Nenthead and
Tynedale Lead and Zinc Company in 1882. It lasted just 14 years, before
collapsing, and into the breach stepped the Vielle Montagne. The company
paid the Nenthead and Tynedale company £43,890 for all the leases,
royalties, mines, mills, works and machinery. While there were still odd
pockets of lead around, the VM as it was known was not particularly
interested – its goal was zinc, which was in great demand for the
manufacture of brass, and for galvanising steel and iron. Unusually, the
zinc ore was not processed on site, as the lead had been, but was shipped
back to Belgium. The deal proved a profitable one, for the price of zinc
soon almost doubled from £16 per ton in 1899 to £27 per ton in 1903.
Starting with the Nenthead mines of Smallcleugh, Rampgill and Caplecleugh,
the VM soon extended its tentacles to the mines of the West Allen Valley.
The Barneycraig mine at Carrshield had been deemed exhausted in 1880, but
the VM reopened it, and kept it producing zinc until 1921. The key to the
company’s success was the modern water-powered machinery which was
introduced, although this was not without its problems. Water was provided
by Perry’s Dam and Smallclough Dam, but the severe Nenthead winters proved
too much for the pipework, which froze and then burst to halt production.
Shipments of zinc ore from the Tyne to Belgium were also badly affected by
the winter weather, leading to a massive accumulation of ore which the
dressing mill could not cope with, even though it was pounding away round
the clock. The old water wheels soon gave way to compressed air pneumatic
rock drills, but the original coal-fired, steam-driven compressor was
replaced by a water-driven compressor. The advantage of using compressed
air was soon apparent, as two men could drill a hole five feet deep in half
an hour, whereby under the old, hand-drilled method,two men working for
half an hour could only produce a hole six inches deep. There was a setback
in 1905 when the ore dressing plant at Nenthead was destroyed by fire. The
replacement plant, built by the infamous Krupps company of Germany, towered
six storeys high in the centre of Nenthead, and was the most modern and
efficient in the whole country. Demand for zinc soared, and the expansion
of the plant had a massive impact on the heart of Nenthead, as the village
clock – known as Old Peter – the butcher’s shambles and even the school
were ruthlessly knocked down in the quest for more space. The VM mines were
soon producing 10,000 tons of zinc blende – around 60 per cent of the total
UK output. Surprisingly, only 40 per cent of this came from underground –
the rest was won from the old waste heaps in the West Allen by the superior
extraction techniques. The company soon ran into trouble with the local
council, who were cross that the steam traction engines used to transport
the ore were ripping up its roads with their heavily-ribbed steel wheels.
For a time, the company even considered building its own railway, from
Nenthead to Alston, to carry 50,000 tons of ore per year, but it was ruled
out on cost grounds. The VM was a major employer, with 450 workers at
Nenthead in the early 1900s , and industrial relations were not always
good. Some 200 went on strike in 1903 over tough new working practices, and
had to find casual work as haymakers. Pay was good for shaft sinkers at £11
per month – the same rate as paid in the diamond mines of South Africa –
but this was to be cut to £7. The local workforce was swelled by 41
Italians, 11 Germans and assorted Swiss, Belgians, Frenchmen, Hungarians,
Dutchman, Spaniards, Swedes and a Rumanian. Relations with the locals were
generally good, but in 1905, teasing of the Italians got out of hand and a
riot broke out, which involved, sticks, bottles and knives. The attendance
of constables from Carlisle, Penrith and Brampton was required, and several
Italians had to appear before Cumberland Quarter Sessions charged with
rioting, and were fined £2. Between the wars, the rug was pulled from the
British zinc industry when the government discovered it was cheaper to
import it from Australia. The VM struggled on though, switching back to
lead mining. It prospered for a while thanks to the influence of Cornish
tin miner Amos Treloar, who concentrated production on the Haggs mine at
Nentsberry, where he found staggeringly productive veins of lead, producing
lumps of lead which were too big for two men to carry. It became one of the
richest lead mines in the country, but then came the Depression, the bottom
fell out of the lead market, and the mine closed. The VM was known for its
philanthropy, providing electric street lighting for Nenthead at a cost of
a shilling (5p) per lamp per year. VM miners also voluntarily helped to
build an extension to Alston Cottage Hospital with materials provided for
free by the company, The Second World War proved the death knell for the VM
in Tynedale, as the fall of France in 1940 cut it off from its
headquarters. After the war, it proved impossible to revive the company’s
fortunes. After 52 years in the South Tyne, it was sold to the Anglo
Austral Company
another book on the area by the same author
*The Walton Family: A Lead Mining Dynasty of the Northern Pennines*
* Alastair Robertson, SB, A5, 79pp £8.95
The involvement of the Walton Family in the lead Industry of the North
Pennines spanned five generatios. They were major partners in several mines
and owned two lead Smelt Mills One family member Jacob Walton was so
respected in the region a amemorial is erected to his memory in Alston. The
book details the famly and their Industrial interests
Mike
www.moorebooks.co.uk
*
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