The North Pennines National Landscape (NPNL) team has been awarded £2m of lottery funding to chronicle the history of lead mining in Northern England through the ‘Land of Lead and Silver’. Along with the £2m National Lottery funding, the NPNL said a further £576,000 would follow from other funders, including £221,000 from Historic England.

The Land of Lead and Silver project will run until 2028 and will work with volunteers and local communities to look at the “industrial heritage that shaped the landscape and its people”, its organisers said. The NPNL team is planning work to preserve the area’s eight mining sites, which it described as “regionally and nationally” important. There will be extensive opportunities for volunteering, involving community arts and engagement, including annual community grants.

National Lottery Heritage Fund director Helen Featherstone said industrial heritage in the region was “hugely significant”, whilst the NPNL’s Andie Harris said the project was for “everyone” who had or “would like to have a connection” with the landscape, and “understand more about what made it the place it is today”. The NPNL said it would take a new approach to lead mining heritage, “weaving in” some of the unknown stories and features from that period in the North Pennines’ history.

From the mid-1700s to the early 1900s, the North Pennines was dominated by lead mining. Visible evidence remains in the form of levels, driven underground to reach the lead veins, mine complexes, dressing floors, and smelt mills. The industry shaped the area’s villages and settlements, and led to the network of rights of way in the valleys and on the high moors.

Further details here: https://northpennines.org.uk/what_we_do/historic-environment/land-of-lead-and-silver/#