St Peter's Mine

Overview

A twentieth-century lead mine at Sparty Lea in East Allendale, working a vein that only existed as far as anyone knew because a drainage tunnel ran into it. The St Peter's Vein was discovered in 1902 during the driving of the Blackett Level, and was thought at the time to be a continuation of the Swinhope Vein. It was worked first from the level itself by W. B. Lead and then from its own shaft by the Weardale Lead Company. Concrete foundations of the shaft-head buildings are what is left.

History

The Blackett Level was one of the great drainage undertakings of the North Pennines, driven up the East Allen to unwater the Allendale mines from below. Its value was never only drainage: a level driven for miles through the orefield crosses ground nobody has prospected, and in 1902 it cut a vein that had not been known before. That was the St Peter's Vein, taken at the time for a continuation of the Swinhope Vein. It was worked first from the Blackett Level itself by W. B. Lead, and afterwards from a shaft of its own, the St Peter's Shaft, by the Weardale Lead Company — the combine that by then held most of what was left of the North Pennine lead industry. Galena was the object, with fluorite, quartz, chalcopyrite and siderite in the vein alongside it. The working belongs to the last phase of Allendale lead mining, when new ore was found by driving rather than by prospecting from surface and the industry was already in long decline.

Geology

The North Pennine orefield, lead in veins cutting the Carboniferous limestones and sandstones of the Alston Block. The St Peter's Vein carries galena with fluorite, quartz, chalcopyrite and siderite, the fluorite-rich assemblage characteristic of the inner part of the orefield. Whether it is a separate vein or the continuation of the Swinhope Vein was an open question when it was found and is the kind of thing a drainage level settles by accident.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Two ways in, in sequence. The vein was worked at first directly from the Blackett Level, the drainage tunnel that had found it, which meant the ore came out along a road already driven and already unwatered. Later the Weardale Lead Company sank the St Peter's Shaft to it and worked from there, with the shaft-head buildings whose concrete foundations survive.

Closure

No closure date has been established for the working. It belongs to the final decades of North Pennine lead mining, and the site is recorded now only by its remains.

What remains

The site at Sparty Lea is cleared. Concrete foundations from some of the mine buildings survive at the shaft head, photographed among rough pasture, and comparison photographs of the mine as it stood about 1900 and in 1930 have been published against views of the same ground today.

Related mines

• Sipton Mine — Both are East Allendale lead mines on the ground drained by the Blackett Level; St Peter's is named on the Sipton record.

Nearby mines

• Sipton Mine — 2.0 km NE
• Holmslinn Mine — 2.2 km SE
• Allenheads Mines — 4.5 km SE
• Killhope Lead Mine — 5.6 km S, County Durham
• Rampgill Mine — 6.3 km SW, Cumbria

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 St Peter's Vein was discovered in 1902 during the driving of the Blackett Level, and was thought at the time to be the continuation of the Swinhope Vein. ¹
• The deposit was worked initially from the Blackett Level by W. B. Lead, and then from the St Peter's Shaft by the Weardale Lead Company. ¹
• The vein produced galena with fluorite, quartz, chalcopyrite and siderite. ¹
• Concrete foundations from some of the mine buildings survive at the shaft head at Sparty Lea. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) St Peter's Mine, Sparty Lea, East Allendale — Co-Curate — Co-Curate, Newcastle University
2. (observational) Site of St Peter's Mine — Geograph Britain and Ireland
3. (observational) (The site of) St. Peter's Mine, Spartylea — Geograph Britain and Ireland

Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026