Lead mining in the northern Pennines (1770-1880) social engineering in a capitalist age

By the middle of the 18th century the Northern Pennines was the most import ant lead-mining district in Britain, at a time when Britain had become the world's leading producer of lead. It is a remote area of England with a rel atively isolated and self contained community such that lead mining was an important source of income for the community, the only other occupation bei ng farming. Due to this the fortunes of the community were affected by the fluctuating price of lead on the world lead markets, as well as by the cons equences of occupational and environmental morbidity. Some of the actions t aken by the principal companies to try to protect workers from the worst ex cesses of these economic variations are interesting examples of social and economic planning. This paper will outline the rise and fall of lead mining as an economic and environmental "force majeur" in the area, chronicling developments in extr action and refining techniques and the evolution of social welfare.