This article by Lynn Willies contains a lot of information on smelting, and a good image of one of the Hollandia ingots:
http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2011-1%20-%20Derbyshire%20Lead%20Smelting%20in%20the%20Eighteenth%20.pdf 

Many years ago now there used to be a pub called the Pig o' Lead on Via Gellia just outside Cromford. Don't know if any readers here know the current owners of the converted property? There might have been some history, pictures or info passed on to them.
I had always intended going in there but the occasion never happened :(

This article by Lynn Willies contains a lot of information on smelting, and a good image of one of the Hollandia ingots:
http://www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%2011-1%20-%20Derbyshire%20Lead%20Smelting%20in%20the%20Eighteenth%20.pdf 

In the iron trade, the channel off which the pig iron moulds branched was known as a 'sow', the analogy being a line of pigs suckling the sow. In the eighteenth century and earlier, 'sow iron' was priced and sold differently to 'pig iron'. The pig iron was the usual 3ft by 4in by 4in approx; sow iron was rather larger cross section (the only definte example I have seen was 6in by 4in cross-section) and was broken into shorter lengths than pig iron to make it easier to handle (the length I saw was around 26 to 30in long).

In the period this thread is concerned with, pig lead, unlike pig iron, was not cast en-masse direct from a furnace by being run in molten state down a channel, off which sows and pigs branched. Instead, lead (and also copper and tin) was ladled by hand from the refining furnace into individual cast iron moulds. The layering that is a prominant feature on many ingots of non-ferrous metals result from the slight cooling of the metal in the mould inbetween each ladleful being added.

Twentieth century photos of casting pig lead show the molten metal piped to individual cast iron moulds which were closely spaced and arranged in a semi-circle, the pipe being moved slightly sideways to each successive mould as the previous one filled up.

Many years ago now there used to be a pub called the Pig o' Lead on Via Gellia just outside Cromford. Don't know if any readers here know the current owners of the converted property? There might have been some history, pictures or info passed on to them.
I had always intended going in there but the occasion never happened :(

That pub came up in one of my searches, so I assume it is still there.
Keith.

We used the Pig of Lead regularly when working at Goodluck mine in the 70's.
It was a modernish building, completely soul-less and having no historical information or history at all.
The beer was usually fairly poor too but needs must when it was nearly closing time.......

We used the Pig of Lead regularly when working at Goodluck mine in the 70's.
It was a modernish building, completely soul-less and having no historical information or history at all.
The beer was usually fairly poor too but needs must when it was nearly closing time.......