Stotsfield Burn Mine

Overview

Stotsfield Burn was a lead and fluorspar mine near Rookhope in Weardale, developed by the Rookhope Valley Mining Company between 1863 and 1884 on the usual pattern of a main shaft with an adit level. Its name is older than the mine: Stotsfield Burn was one of two medieval settlements whose names were carried over to the mines opened beside them in the mid-nineteenth century. Like most of Weardale it began in lead and ended in fluorspar, closing in 1966.

History

Stotsfield Burn was one of two medieval settlements near what is now Rookhope village whose names were given to lead and fluorspar mines opened in the mid-nineteenth century. The mine was developed by the Rookhope Valley Mining Company between 1863 and 1884, access following the customary pattern of a main shaft with an adit level. The 1888 List of Mines enters Stotsfield Burn in Weardale under the Weardale Lead Mining Company — so the sett had passed out of the Rookhope Valley company's hands by then, into those of the concern that dominated the dale. Production ran in two distinct commodities and two distinct eras. Lead concentrates totalled 1,808 tons between 1863 and 1882 and a further 104 tons between 1932 and 1940; fluorspar, which had been worthless when the mine opened, totalled 15,168 tons between 1905 and 1940. The mine closed in 1966. Among mineral collectors the mine has a modest reputation. Specimen-quality fluorite was not common here and no flats are recorded as occurring, but the Red Vein itself occasionally produced lustrous, transparent grey-green and purple fluorites, the best of them comparable to good pieces from Frazer's Hush or Blackdene. Galena specimens were also found, modified cubes up to three centimetres, with occasional cerussite.

Geology

This is the heart of the North Pennine orefield, where ore is carried in near-vertical veins cutting a Carboniferous sequence of limestones, sandstones and shales. The vein named in the accounts of this mine is the Red Vein. What the production figures record is the great reversal of the Weardale orefield: galena was the object when the mine was developed in the 1860s and fluorite was the gangue thrown out with the deads, and by the twentieth century the fluorspar was the product and the lead an afterthought — 15,168 tons of the one against 104 tons of the other over roughly the same later decades. A 'flat' in this district is a bedded replacement body spreading sideways from a vein into a favourable limestone, and the note that none is recorded here is a real statement about the ground rather than a gap in the record.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Access followed the customary Weardale pattern of a main shaft with an adit level. Nothing read for this record gives the shaft's depth, the length of the level, or how many worked here.

Closure

The mine closed in 1966 — late for Weardale, and only possible because of fluorspar. Its lead production had effectively finished by 1882 and the 104 tons returned between 1932 and 1940 are a by-product of the fluorspar working rather than a revival.

What remains

Not established. No dated site report or photograph of the mine has been found for this record.

Not established. Nothing read for this record describes what survives at Stotsfield Burn.

Related mines

• Brandon Walls Mine — Both were worked by the Rookhope Valley Mining Company, the concern credited with developing Stotsfield Burn between 1863 and 1884 — two of its Rookhope-area setts in the same stretch of upper Weardale.
• Slitt Mine — Both were held by the Weardale Lead Mining Company, the concern that dominated the dale in the later nineteenth century, and both followed the same Weardale arc from lead into fluorspar as the value of the two minerals reversed.

Nearby mines

• Brandon Walls Mine — 1.5 km W
• Rookhope (Boltsburn Mine) — 2.0 km N
• Lady Annabella Mine — 2.2 km S
• Wolfcleugh Mine — 2.4 km W
• Cambokeels Mine — 2.6 km S

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 1888 List of Mines records Stotsfield Burn in Weardale under the Weardale Lead Mining Company. ¹
• Stotsfield Burn was developed by the Rookhope Valley Mining Company between 1863 and 1884, with access following the customary pattern of a main shaft with an adit level; lead concentrates totalled 1,808 tons from 1863 to 1882 and 104 tons from 1932 to 1940, and fluorspar 15,168 tons from 1905 to 1940. (uncertain) ¹
• The mine closed in 1966. ²
• Specimen quality fluorite was not common from Stotsfield Burn and no flats are recorded as occurring here, but the Red Vein itself occasionally produced lustrous, transparent grey-green and purple fluorites, the best comparable in quality to good Frazer's Hush or Blackdene pieces; galena specimens of modified cubes to 3 cm and occasional cerussite were also found. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Lead Mines (Durham District) — Mines Department, via the Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Weardale — Steetley Minerals / rock-site.co.uk

Record created: 5 September 2026 · Last researched: 5 September 2026