Mohope Lead Mines

The lead mine and ore works at Mohopehead are well preserved and are a good example of a single phase small mine. The bouse teams are the best preserved example in the North Pennines, which enhances the importance of the monument.

The monument includes the remains of a small leadmine and associated ore works situated on the left bank of the River West Allen. The complex was active in the early to mid-19th century between the 1820s and the 1850s. The visible remains of the leadmine at Mohopehead are well preserved and include an adit, a lodging shop and a spoil heap.

The arched stone portal of the mine adit is visible at the extreme western edge of the monument. It still functions as a drainage tunnel and the stream which emerges from it crosses the monument in a narrow channel which in places retains a covering of stone flagging. Some 16m east of the adit there are the remains of a stone built lodging house. The house, now a ruined structure, contains a large hearth at its western end, suggesting that it was used as a blacksmith's forge.

The remains of a single pot conical limekiln with one corbelled draw arch are visible immediately to the west of the lodging house. A trackway leads from the area immediately in front of the adit to a prominent spoil heap which occupies the south eastern side of the monument. The ore processing works are situated at the north eastern side of the monument.

Once the lead ore had been removed from the mine it was stored in a series of tall stone containers known as bouse teams. A set of bouse teams, thought to be the best preserved example in the North Pennines, survive and are Listed Grade II. The bouse teams are visible as a series of eight apsidal bays of squared rubble construction, each separated from the other by a stepped wall. They stand largely to their full height.

Immediately in front of the eastern end of the bouse teams there is a low stone platform up to 11 courses high and flagged with large stones which is interpreted as a loading platform. This stone structure is also thought to have been used as a knock stone upon which the lead ore was placed and crushed by hand with hammers in order to facilitate further processing.