Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

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

Lookup NU author(s): Dr John Harrison

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.


Abstract

By the middle of the 18th century the Northern Pennines was the most important 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 relatively isolated and self contained community such that lead mining was an important source of income for the community, the only other occupation being 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 consequences of occupational and environmental morbidity. Some of the actions taken by the principal companies to try to protect workers from the worst excesses 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 extraction and refining techniques and the evolution of social welfare.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Harrison J

Editor(s): Grieco, A., Iavicoli, S., Berlinguer, G.

Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

Publication status: Published

Conference Name: 1st International Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Prevention

Year of Conference: 1999

Pages: 223-230

ISSN: 0531-5131

Publisher: Elsevier BV

Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item

ISBN: 9780444502551


Share