Water House Mine

Overview

A small lead mine at Haydon Bridge west of Hexham which also raised umber — the iron-and-manganese earth used as a pigment — an unusual pairing that appears in its returns for 1883, 1888 and 1890. It came back briefly in the 1920s under the Tynedale Lead Company with seven people, and was down to four prospecting by 1927.

History

The mine appears in the returns from 1882 under the Water House Mining Co. of Haydon Bridge, raising lead ore; from 1883 the returns add umber, and lead ore and umber are what it is credited with in 1888 and 1890 too. The 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act gives it plainly as 'Water House, Haydon Bridge, Lead ore & umber, Water House Mining Co., Haydon Bridge'.

Then nothing for thirty-five years. The Tynedale Lead Co. Ltd took it up again in the 1920s: seven people in 1925, five of them below ground, and four in 1927 with the return marked prospecting. No deaths are recorded at the mine at all, which for a working this small is unremarkable rather than remarkable.

Geology

The mine worked lead veins on the northern edge of the North Pennine orefield west of Hexham, the same ground as the Settlingstones and Stonecroft workings a few miles east, where the veins carry barium minerals rather than the fluorspar of the orefield's centre. What sets Water House apart in the returns is the umber: a soft earth coloured by iron and manganese oxides, found where iron-bearing rock has weathered, and dug for pigment rather than for metal.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

Nothing of the layout is recorded. The scale is the clearest guide: seven people in 1925, five of them underground, and four prospecting in 1927.

Closure

The 1927 return, with four people, is marked prospecting; no later return and the closure date is not known. The Northern Mine Research Society's data has the Waterhouse companies from 1876, six years before the first return the museum transcribes.

What remains

Nothing is recorded of what survives on the site.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• The returns credit the mine with lead ore in 1882 and with lead ore and umber in 1883, 1888 and 1890; the 1888 List of Mines gives 'Water House, Haydon Bridge, Lead ore & umber, Water House Mining Co., Haydon Bridge'. ^1,2
• The Tynedale Lead Co. Ltd held the mine in the 1920s, employing seven people in 1925, five of them below ground, and four in 1927 with the return marked prospecting. ²
• The Durham Mining Museum records no deaths at this mine. ²
• Northern Mine Research Society data places Waterhouse lead mine at NY 8118 6467, 88 metres up beside Haydon Bridge, held by the Waterhouse Mining Co. from 1876 to 1888 and in 1891-92, the Waterhouse Lead Mining Co. in 1889-90 and the Tynedale Lead Co. Ltd from 1925 to 1927, and cites Fairbairn's 'Allendale, Tynedale and Derwent Lead Mines' (British Mining 65), Smith's 1923 Special Report and Dunham's 1948 memoir. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) 1888 List of Mines under the Metalliferous Mines Act: Lead Ore, Barytes, and Whinstone Mines in Northumberland — Mines Department, via the Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Waterhouse (Lead Ore) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Waterhouse lead mine (Buddlepit Mine Database, from Northern Mine Research Society data) — Buddlepit / Mining History Trust

Record created: 4 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026