Cash Well Mine

Overview

Cash Well, usually written Cashwell, was a lead mine on the north-east side of Cross Fell, on the watershed between the Tees and the South Tyne and nearly 600 m above sea level. It worked the Cashwell vein, at first from the surface by hushing and opencutting and later through a series of levels driven from the north-east as the upper deposits were worked out. A run of companies and individuals held it between 1868 and 1921, and its own company was at the mine when it was listed in 1888. The earliest workings are protected as a scheduled monument, described as a core of well preserved features within a wider lead mining landscape.

History

Alston Moor has been mined for lead since at least the twelfth century, and the workings at Cashwell within the scheduled area are thought to have ceased by the early nineteenth century — placing the first working of the vein well back into the hand-worked, water-powered era. A smeltmill was built at NY 71653612, and later in the century, as the upper deposits became worked out, a series of levels was driven from the north-east to reach what remained. The recorded sequence of owners runs almost unbroken from 1868: the Cashwell Mining Company to 1876, Dr De May & Co. to 1880, W. C. Dunn & Co. to 1890, the Cashwell & Crossfell Co. to 1893, and then Sir Charles Morrison-Bell from 1894 until 1913, his executors continuing to 1921. The 1888 List of Mines records the mine under its own company with the address given simply as the mine itself — a detail that says something about how remote a place this was to run a business from. Workings on the vein finally ceased with the closure of the mine in about 1921.

Geology

The mine worked the Cashwell vein, one of the mineral veins of the Northern Pennine Orefield on the Alston Block, in ground high on Cross Fell. The vein was rich enough at outcrop to be worth attacking from the surface, and the sequence of working — hushing and opencutting first, levels driven from below later as the upper ground was exhausted — is the ordinary signature of a Pennine vein worked downwards from its outcrop over a long period.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

The monument is bisected south-west to north-east by workings along the line of the Cashwell vein. The south-western 90 m or so takes the form of an opencut, where the vein material has been removed to leave an irregular trench about a metre wide. To the north-east, and downhill, a wider area has been excavated into a round-bottomed gully up to 10 m across and 2 m deep: this is the head of a hush, the feature left by releasing a head of stored water down a hillside to strip the ground and expose the vein. An adit, Cross Fell High Level, and the remains of small ore processing areas are also included in the scheduling. Later working was through levels driven from the north-east; the smeltmill and those later levels are poorly preserved for their date and were left outside the scheduled area.

Closure

Workings on the Cashwell vein ceased with the closure of the mine in about 1921, at the end of the Morrison-Bell tenure. The workings inside the protected area had already been abandoned far earlier, by the early nineteenth century.

What remains

The earliest workings are a scheduled monument, designated on 16 May 1997, on open-access ground on the north-east flank of Cross Fell. The scheduling covers the opencut along the Cashwell vein, the head of the hush, the Cross Fell High Level adit and small ore processing areas, and describes them as a core area of well preserved features within a wider lead mining landscape, with further remains to the south-west and north-east outside the designated area. The smeltmill and the later levels survive but are poorly preserved.

The hush gully and the opencut trench along the vein are the dominant surface features, running south-west to north-east across the fell, with the Cross Fell High Level adit and small ore-dressing areas alongside. The smeltmill at NY 71653612 and the later north-eastern levels also survive, though in poor condition.

Nearby mines

• Coalcleugh — 5.3 km NE, Northumberland
• Silverband Mine — 6.4 km S
• Tynehead Mine — 6.5 km NE
• Bentyfield Mine — 6.8 km NE
• Whitesike Mine — 6.8 km NE

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.

• Recorded owners run from the Cashwell Mining Co. (1868-1876), Dr De May & Co. (1877-1880), W. C. Dunn & Co. (1881-1890) and the Cashwell & Crossfell Co. (1891-1893) to Sir Charles Morrison-Bell (1894-1913) and his executors (1914-1921). ¹
• The earliest workings were scheduled on 16 May 1997 (Historic England 1015838), covering an opencut along the Cashwell vein, an adit called Cross Fell High Level and associated small ore processing areas, described as a core area of well preserved features within a wider lead mining landscape. ²
• The south-western 90 m of the workings is an opencut leaving an irregular trench about a metre wide; to the north-east and downhill a wider excavated area forms a round-bottomed gully up to 10 m wide and 2 m deep, the head of a hush. ²
• Workings on the vein ceased with the closure of the mine in about 1921, but the workings within the scheduled area are thought to have ceased by the early nineteenth century. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Cashwell — Buddlepit Mine Database
2. (primary) Cashwell hush and lead mining remains, Alston Moor — scheduled monument 1015838 (Historic England scheduling text) — Historic England scheduling text, via ancientmonuments.uk

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 4 September 2026