Whitesike Mine

Overview

A 19th-century lead mine on Alston Moor, worked wholly by the London Lead Company and linked by tramway to the neighbouring Bentyfield mine, together forming a core surviving example of a mid-19th-century nucleated North Pennine lead-mining complex.

History

Lead had been mined on Alston Moor since medieval times, but the industry expanded massively during the 19th century. Whitesike mine, on the west side of Garrigill Burn, was worked wholly by the London Lead Company and was linked by tramway to the neighbouring Bentyfield mine on the opposite bank, the two being worked in close association with each other and sharing common ore-processing infrastructure. Between 1848 and 1882, lead production from the combined Whitesike and Bentyfield workings reached an enormous 12,000 tons. The monument today includes the core surviving remains of both mines and their associated ore works: mine entrances, pits for a water wheel that drove the crushing mill, bouse teams used to store unprocessed ore, dressing floors where ore was processed, and massive spoil tips. Dunham's figures give Whitesike's own share of that output as 7,322 tons of lead concentrates, raised by the London Lead Company between 1848 and 1882, the ore carrying about 7 oz of silver to the ton of lead in the 1860s; the veins yielded galena with quartz, siderite, purple fluorite and a little sphalerite. Output is on record only for those years, and the date the company gave up the mine is not. The dressing floors were built out over the burn in the narrow valley, and the tip of dressing fines west of the road, through which the stream is now culverted, is estimated to hold more than 60,000 tonnes of waste; the ground has since become one of the richest calaminarian grasslands on the North Pennine orefield.

Geology

Lead of the Alston Moor orefield, on the west side of Garrigill Burn, worked with Bentyfield mine across the burn.

Workings

Worked in close association with Bentyfield mine across Garrigill Burn, linked by tramway, with shared ore-dressing infrastructure including a water-wheel-driven crushing mill, bouse teams and dressing floors. The mine was entered by levels rather than a working shaft: the Whitesike Level (or Low Level), the Clay Level, driven on top of the Great Limestone and extended some 700 m east along the Browngill Vein, and Colonel's Level. From these the Browngill Vein was stoped in the Great Limestone and the beds above it, with lesser workings on the Thorter Gill Syke and Browngill Sun veins and older, undated trials on Old Groves Vein. Underground the levels connected with Bentyfield's workings across the burn and with the Caplecleugh Horse Level.

Closure

Lead output is recorded from 1848 to 1882; the date the London Lead Company ceased work here is not on record.

What remains

Designated a Scheduled Monument together with Bentyfield mine; mine entrances, water wheel pits, bouse teams, dressing floors and spoil tips survive. The large tip of dressing fines west of the road, through which the burn is culverted, now carries one of the richest calaminarian grassland communities on the North Pennine lead mines.

Mine entrances, a water wheel pit, bouse teams, dressing floors and extensive spoil tips, shared with the adjoining Bentyfield mine site.

Related mines

• Bentyfield Mine — Linked by tramway and worked in close association, with shared ore-dressing infrastructure; jointly designated a single Scheduled Monument.
• Flinty Fell Lead Rakes — Longholehead Whimsey on these rakes stands above the point where Whitesike's underground workings, two kilometres to the west, meet those driven from Nenthead, and both were London Lead Company ground.

Recorded claims

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

• Whitesike mine was worked wholly by the London Lead Company and linked by tramway to the neighbouring Bentyfield mine, the two being worked in close association with each other. ¹
• Between 1848 and 1882, lead production from the combined Whitesike and Bentyfield workings reached 12,000 tons. ¹
• The monument includes the core surviving remains of a pair of 19th-century nucleated lead mines with their associated ore works: mine entrances, a water wheel pit, bouse teams, dressing floors and spoil tips. ^1,2
• Whitesike's main production came from the Browngill Vein, reached by the Whitesike Level (or Whitesike Low Level), the Clay Level and Colonel's Level, with significant stoping in the Great Limestone and the beds above it; some ore also came from the Thorter Gill Syke Vein and the Browngill Sun Vein. Dunham records the ore as galena with quartz, siderite, purple fluorite and a little sphalerite, an output of 7,322 tons of lead concentrates by the London Lead Company between 1848 and 1882, and silver recovery from the Browngill Vein ore of about 7.0 oz per ton of lead in 1861-70. Older workings on Old Groves Vein and related veins are undated and are not thought to have yielded much ore. ³
• Whitesike lies just east of the B6277 Alston to Middleton-in-Teesdale road, with a large fenced tip of fines west of the road, estimated to hold over 60,000 tonnes of ore-dressing waste, through which the burn is culverted and over which the road runs; the dressing floors were built out over the stream in the narrow valley. The site holds one of the richest calaminarian grassland communities left on the North Pennine lead mines, its thrift population perhaps the largest and healthiest remaining in the North Pennines. ⁴
• Bentyfield's level, extended east along the Browngill Vein to the Whimsey Upon the Flatt, made connections with the Caplecleugh Horse Level and the Whitesike Level; the Clay Level was driven on top of the Great Limestone, cutting the Thortergill Syke North Vein and then the Browngill Vein over 410 m, and was extended another 700 m east on the Browngill Vein. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Whitesike and Bentyfield lead mines and ore works, Alston Moor - list entry 1015832 — Historic England
2. (primary) Whitesike and Bentyfield Lead Mines, 20 Years of Heritage at Risk — Historic England
3. (secondary) Whitesike & Bentyfield Mines: geology and mineralogy (Brian Young, for the North Pennines AONB OREsome project) — North Pennines AONB Partnership
4. (secondary) Whitesike and Bentyfield mines (OREsome North Pennines) — North Pennines National Landscape
5. (observational) Bentyfield Mines (The Mine Explorer Society) — Mine Explorer Society

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026