On behalf of the Friends of the North Pennines’ Dukesfield Steering Group I am delighted to announce that we have been successful with our Heritage Lottery Fund grant application. This means we can conserve the physical remains of the Dukesfield mill arches, and involve people in learning new skills in a range of conservation, research and heritage activities. There are already nearly 100 of you on our mailing list, living at all points from the North Pennines down to Blaydon, and we hope you will want to join us in finding out about those who worked at the mill and along the lead routes. It will all help stimulate the exploration and understanding of our area and its industrial past. It's excellent news!


Some preparatory work now needs to take place before we are authorised by the HLF to start the project. We hope to be able to start on our two year project towards the end of May. Although spread over two years the timetable has some close connections between different activities so we will start by selecting a suitably qualified project manager to lead the work, whose first task will be to organise a launch meeting which we hope as many people will come to as possible.

As a reminder for those who want it, and for the benefit of those who recently signed up to the mailing list, the highlights of our plan are set out below.

best wishes,
Greg Finch

for the Dukesfield Steering Group.


Our Plans

We plan a two year project, starting in May. The chimney stacks at the head of the arches will be cleared as another piece of archaeological work, so that they can be included in the conservation of the entire structure, along with the end of the millrace opposite, exposed during October’s ‘dig’. An art club activity will take place in early summer to record the arches before the building work begins. Documentary research will get going again. There will be Dukesfield related craft classes in Slaley Show, starting this August. The autumn of will see the laying of a footpath to the consolidated mill race, and taking part in a regional walking festival, marking the 75th anniversary of Alfred Wainwright’s Pennine Journey. This is to be commemorated by a long distance footpath, which runs right past the arches, so it will be great if the conservation work has been completed in time. All we need is a summer of good weather beforehand. There will be walking related events elsewhere on the lead routes from Allenheads to Blaydon, as well as at Dukesfield.

During next winter there will be a number of activities for first school children in the area, and a “Heritage cook-off’ at one of our parish halls, and the chance to get involved in a local version of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ to find out if you might be descended from a lead smelter or carrier. Work will also start on a website to store the great quantity of content we will be collecting through our various activities.

We plan to produce some leaflets with new self-guided walking and cycling routes with professional design support by the spring of 2014 in time for the summer season, and build a willow sculpture at Whitley Chapel of a carrier with a lead-ore carrying horse heading in the direction of Dukesfield, to mark the importance of the lead traffic along this road. On a similar theme there will be an organised walk and horse ride from Sinderhope in Allendale, up over the lead road and down into the Shire, following the path taken by the carriers and their trains of laden ponies. In the summer there will be another major archaeological excavation in front of the arches at Dukesfield to reveal more of the substantive wall not marked on the earliest known map of the site. We might therefore find out a great deal more about the early history of the lead industry at the site.

Into the autumn school year we aim to have material available to support middle schools history topic on the industrial revolution with information and resources on the importance of the regional lead industry, and a call will go out to people who want to act to join in rehearsals for a community play about the lead routes that will then tour various venues into the following spring. A highly illustrated book of contemporary images of the lead industry will be produced in time for the Christmas market. The winter of 2014-5 will also see the gathering together of material from all our events, research, digs and activities into displays for a touring exhibition, and the preparation of material for fixed display board to give information on the industry at Blaydon and at Dukesfield.

Finally, in the spring of 2015 our exhibition will go around the region to promote our heritage and what we’ve found taking in libraries up and down the Tyne Valley, the Killhope Museum, Path Head Water Mill at Blaydon, and possibly at the Metro Centre if they have a suitable unit empty at the time. The community play will be performed at various venues and history talks given summarising what we’ve learned. And we will have a big party to celebrate the end of what should be a fascinating two years!

Joining In

This is just a summary of what we plan to do. It does all mean there will be great chances to join in and learn a lot of new skills, from building and environmental conservation to archaeological surveying and digging, from planning walking routes to improving photographic and printmaking skills, from cooking to acting and learning how to use old documents. In all we reckon there will be 14 training events reaching over 130 people, around 850 days of volunteer involvement by (we hope) nearly 100 people, helping to put on upwards of 70 events and create over a dozen different leaflets, books and other artefacts. These have the potential to reach thousands of people in the coming years. So there will definitely be no shortage of things to get involved with! If you have a friend who isn’t on this list but who might be interested please feel free to forward this one for now and ask them to send a message to [email protected] and we’ll add them on. Do let us know if there is anything in particular you’d like to get involved with.

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