Cabbish Mine

Overview

A North Stainmore mine worked twice for two different minerals. It was developed for lead on the Cabbish and Parlour veins in the 1850s and 60s, then reopened in 1905 for the barytes the lead miners had thrown away, and in its second life it was substantial: nearly three thousand tons of barytes in 1907 alone, and more than twenty-one thousand tons in all by 1920.

History

Cabbish sits on the Cabbish and Parlour veins high on Stainmore, at about 337 metres. It was first developed for lead: John Whitwell & Co. are recorded in 1859, Jacob Walton in 1860, Walton with Sir Richard Tufton in 1861-62, and J. P. Walton & Co. from 1864 to 1881. Lead mining on Stainmore was substantial enough in the 18th and 19th centuries to support smelt mills at Augill Bridge and Smeltmill Beck. The second life began in 1905, when J. G. Reynoldson reopened the mine for barytes — the heavy white gangue mineral that lead miners had long discarded and that had since found markets in paint and chemicals. The Mineral Statistics show what came out: 454 tons of barytes in 1906, then 2,946 tons in 1907 and 2,881 in 1908, worth £1,178 and £1,152 at the mine, and 2,507 tons in 1910. From 1911 the returns are given as barium rather than barytes — 1,306 tons that year, 1,597 in 1912 and 2,006 in 1913 — and a trickle of lead continued alongside, two or three tons a year through the same period, worth ten to twenty-four pounds. By 1920 the mine had produced over 21,000 tons in all, and it is unlikely that much was added before it closed in 1930. Fifteen people were employed in 1914 and sixteen in 1921, about nine of them below ground.

Geology

The mine worked the Cabbish and Parlour veins, mineral veins of the northern Pennine orefield carrying lead with barytes as gangue. What made the second working possible is that the barytes, worthless to the lead miners of the 1850s, had become the product in its own right by 1905, with the lead reduced to a by-product of two or three tons a year.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Underground working on the two veins, with about nine of the fifteen or sixteen people employed below ground in 1914 and 1921 and the rest at the surface dressing the ore. Buddlepit records the site as an adit.

Closure

The mine closed in 1930, after twenty-five years of the barytes working. Production is unlikely to have greatly exceeded the 21,000 tons recorded by 1920.

What remains

The site is on private land. Nothing of its present state was established from the sources read for this pass.

Nearby mines

• Augill Mine — 1.6 km W
• Lunehead Mine — 5.0 km N, County Durham
• Closehouse Mine — 7.3 km N, County Durham
• Force Garth Quarry — 13.1 km N, County Durham
• Cleasby Mines — 14.0 km SE, North Yorkshire

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The mine was initially developed for lead on the Cabbish and Parlour veins in the 1850s and 1860s and reopened for barytes in 1905, running until 1930. ^1,2
• The Mineral Statistics record 454 tons of barytes in 1906, 2,946 in 1907, 2,881 in 1908 and 2,507 in 1910, then barium returns of 1,306 tons in 1911, 1,597 in 1912 and 2,006 in 1913, with two or three tons of lead a year alongside. ³
• By 1920 the mine had produced over 21,000 tons, and production is unlikely to have greatly exceeded that by the 1930 closure. ¹
• John Whitwell & Co. in 1859, Jacob Walton in 1860, Walton with Sir Richard Tufton in 1861-62, J. P. Walton & Co. from 1864 to 1881, and J. G. Reynoldson from 1905 to 1930. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cabbish Mine — Buddlepit Mine Database (from Northern Mine Research Society data)
2. (secondary) Stainmore — Cumbria County History Trust
3. (secondary) Cabbish (Barytes) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026