Whiteside Mine

Overview

Whiteside was one of three mines working the Grinton How Vein on Cogden Moor south of Grinton in Swaledale, the others being Grinton How and Fearnought. Their ore went to the Grinton smelt mill immediately to the north — lead being so heavy that mills were put close to the ore rather than ore carried to a central mill, which is why Swaledale had over thirty of them. The 1888 List of Mines returns Whiteside under the Grinton Mining and Smelting Company, a concern that did both.

History

Lead has been worked around Grinton for a very long time. The history of lead mining in Swaledale is believed to go back as far as the second century BC, and the first written records of lead being worked in the Grinton area are documents of 1219. Ownership of the land was split between the Manor of Healaugh and the Priory at Bridlington; at the Dissolution it was sold off with the Crown keeping the mineral rights over any future enterprise — which is why the later workings here are held on crown leases. The lead smelted at Grinton mill came from the Grinton How Vein, mined at Grinton How, Whiteside and Fearnought mines just to the south of the mill site. The reason the mill stood there rather than anywhere more convenient is simple physics: lead ore is heavy, so smelt mills were built close to where the ore came out instead of one central mill being fed by several mines, and Swaledale alone ended up with more than thirty of them. Grinton mill was known variously as How Mill, after the vein it processed, and as Low Mill. The 1888 List of Mines enters Whiteside in the township of Grinton with J. Rodwell as manager and the Grinton Mining and Smelting Company Limited as owner. Smelting at Grinton ceased in December 1895, and nothing read for this record carries the mine beyond that. Its own opening date, workforce and output are not recorded in anything consulted.

Geology

Swaledale lies in the Yoredale country of the northern Pennines, where limestones, shales and sandstones alternate through the Carboniferous sequence and lead is carried in near-vertical veins cutting across them. The vein here is named in the record itself — the Grinton How Vein — and it was rich enough to support three separate mines and a smelt mill within a mile or so of one another. The mill was built specifically to process lead won by hushing and hydraulic mining, which says something about how the ore was got on this moor: water released from dammed reservoirs to strip the hillside and expose the vein.

Geological setting: Veins and Lodes (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Not established in detail. Whiteside was one of three mines on the Grinton How Vein just south of the smelt mill on Cogden Moor. Nothing read for this record describes its shafts, levels or dressing floors.

Closure

No closure date has been established. Smelting at the Grinton mill, which took this mine's ore, ceased in December 1895, and the collapse of the British lead price against imported ore through those decades closed most of Swaledale; but no source read here states when Whiteside itself stopped.

What remains

Not established for the mine itself. The Grinton smelt mill immediately to the north, which its ore fed, survives as the best preserved lead mining site in the Yorkshire Dales: the buildings and the stone flue are grade II* listed and all are scheduled monuments.

Not established. Nothing read for this record describes what survives at Whiteside itself, as distinct from the smelt mill down the hill.

Nearby mines

• Marrick Lead Mines — 2.8 km NE, Yorkshire
• Surrender Mine — 3.2 km NW
• Cobscar Mill — 4.8 km S
• Old Gang Mines — 4.9 km NW
• Fremington Edge Quarry — 5.2 km N

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 Whiteside in the township of Grinton, with J. Rodwell as manager and the Grinton Mining and Smelting Co. Ltd. as owner. ¹
• Lead worked at Grinton Smelt Mill came from the Grinton How Vein, mined at Grinton How, Whiteside and Fearnought Mines, just to the south of the mill site. ²
• Lead working was difficult because the ore is so heavy, so smelt mills were located close to the occurrence of lead ore rather than a central mill being fed by several mines, which led to over 30 mills in Swaledale alone. ²
• The history of lead mining in Swaledale is believed to go as far back as the 2nd century BC, though the first written records of lead being worked in the Grinton area are documents dated 1219. (uncertain) ²
• Smelting at Grinton ceased in December 1895, and the mill site is recognised as the best preserved lead mining site in the Yorkshire Dales. 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) Grinton Smelt Mill — Wikipedia

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