Blagill Mine

Overview

An Alston Moor mine worked for lead since perhaps the 14th century, unique in the 19th century as the only place in the world where barytocalcite was mined as an ore, until cheaper witherite from neighbouring Nentsberry ended demand for it after 1895.

History

Blagill Mine lies on the south side of Newshield Moss, between the Nent and South Tyne valleys on Alston Moor, and may have been worked as far back as 1359, possibly by Tilman of Cologne, one of the German miners recorded working the North Pennine orefield in the medieval period. Its earliest working targeted lead, from veins including Slote, Thorngill-Lough, Shildwell (or Whitwell) and Fistas Rake (or Blagill Old), with minor strings at Coatley Hill and Copperbole Head. The mine's real distinction came in the 19th century, when it became -- uniquely in the world -- a commercial source of barytocalcite, a barium-calcium carbonate mineral, worked by a changing succession of small operators: Jos. Dickinson & Co. from 1859, in partnership with or superseded intermittently by Thomas Wilson through the 1860s-80s, the short-lived Blagill Mining Co. (1877-80), and the Horse Edge Mining Co. (1891-92). Demand collapsed once the higher-barium witherite from the nearby Nentsberry Haggs mine reached the market, and no production is recorded after 1895. Ore from an earlier phase of Blagill's working had been smelted at Blagill Mill, a small one- or two-hearth smelt mill built early in the 18th century and operated by the London Lead Company -- itself a separate, much earlier chapter of the site's history, the mill having already gone out of use by 1789 in favour of Langley Mill, well before the mine's 19th-century barytocalcite operators.

Geology

Lead veins of Alston Moor between the Nent and South Tyne valleys — Slote, Thorngill-Lough, Shildwell (or Whitwell) and Fistas Rake (or Blagill Old), with minor strings at Coatley Hill and Copperbole Head — and, uniquely in the 19th century, barytocalcite worked as an ore in its own right.

Workings

Worked veins including Slote, Thorngill-Lough, Shildwell (Whitwell) and Fistas Rake (Blagill Old), with minor strings at Coatley Hill and Copperbole Head; site elevation around 349 metres.

Closure

No commercial production is recorded after 1895, once cheaper witherite from the nearby Nentsberry Haggs mine took over the market Blagill's barytocalcite had supplied; one source records the site as worked until 1905, a discrepancy not recorded.

What remains

The site is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), with collecting and general access prohibited accordingly.

Small slag heaps survive from the earlier Blagill Mill phase, on the south side of a nearby level above an old roadway; nothing is recorded of surviving mine-specific structures separately.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The Buddlepit database's own summary states the mine was worked until 1905, while its narrative text states no production is recorded after 1895 -- the two statements disagree. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Blagill was the only place in the world where barytocalcite was mined as a commercial ore; production ended after 1895 once cheaper witherite from the neighbouring Nentsberry Haggs mine took over the market. ¹
• Blagill Mill, a small early-18th-century smelt mill operated by the London Lead Company, had already gone out of use by 1789 in favour of Langley Mill -- a much earlier chapter of the site's history than the mine's later 19th-century barytocalcite operators. ²
• The Buddlepit database's own summary states the mine was worked until 1905, while its narrative text states no production is recorded after 1895 -- the two statements disagree. (disputed) ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Blagill, Buddlepit Mine Database — Buddlepit Mine Database (NMRS-sourced)
2. (secondary) Blagill Mill at Blagill — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 31 August 2026 · Last researched: 1 September 2026