North Pennines Historic Environment Forum 2024

Added to Calendar: 23/11/24

ElectroNick

ElectroNick

Active member
Area Moderator
Hello Everyone,

For everyone interested in the North Pennines & the Lead industry there, you might be interested in the following...

"A day filled with talks from National Landscape staff and guest speakers.

Talks will include:

  • Land of Lead and Silver – end of year 1 update (Rebecca Cadbury-Simmons and Andie Harris)
  • Photogrammetry in the land of lead and silver – finding a new angle (Kevin Smith)
  • Consolidating heritage by Heritage Consolidation Ltd (Gary Simpson)
  • Modelling mines… and mining models: how 3D imaging can help us see, and conserve heritage (Nick Unwin)
  • The quaker history of the Allen and South Tyne Valleys (David Penn)
  • A sink to rising Fairy tale: cave exploration in Weardale (Adele Ward)
  • The old man and the fox: stories of the people who made mining history in Scordale (Ruth Wharton)
Talks and buffet lunch – £25 / Talks only – £15. Wheelchair accessible.

We are offering five free bursary places for the forum. There is no strict criteria for these places, they are available to anyone for whom the cost is prohibitive. To request a bursary place please email rebecca@northpennines.org.uk."

It's taking place on Saturday 23rd Nov at Allendale Town Hall 10am to 4pm.

More info an a link to book a spot are at https://northpennines.org.uk/event/north-pennines-historic-environment-forum-2024/

I'll be there if anyone wants to say "Hi" - should be an interesting day, looking forward to it :cool:
 
That sounds like a great event. Adele's talk will be particularly interesting. It is a pity that I am otherwise engaged.

Chris.
 
A big thanks to the organisers and speakers for an interesting day of talks ,which was successfully moved online at the last minute thanks to Storm Bert! And yes, Adele's talk was very interesting, all the more so for having some photos of the knocking wall at Westenhope. Thanks to Chris and Adele for the talk :cool: .
 
There are actually two knocking walls up there, the listing says there are only three in the North Pennines, but i'm not sure where the third is.IMG_20210620_150358367_HDR.jpg
 
Cheers Chris - I think they're Westernhope, Sharnberry and Allenheads. There are other some other areas with remnants or individual knock stones, but the literature is very sparse on them. The reconstructed knocking wall at Killhope is loosely based on Westernhope I think.

The SAM/NHLE entries themselves aren't always great for gleaning info, and the details for a lot of the early listings seem to be buried somewhere within HE or the National Archives.
 
I've never been entirely sure how you can always identify a knocking stone from a random large flat rock in the neighbourhood, the knocking wall does seem perhaps easier to categorise, Colin Fowler was fairly sure that the mineshop near the tips at Pikelaw had a knock stone and Paul Rodriques mentioned at least one well up the valley from Feldon smeltmill.

Just out of interest there are a few large flat stones by the bouseteam near the dressing floor at Pikelaw and a group of maybe three together, could be the remnants of a knocking wall or just happenstance?

Jim
 

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Jim MacPherson said:
I've never been entirely sure how you can always identify a knocking stone from a random large flat rock in the neighbourhood, the knocking wall does seem perhaps easier to categorise, Colin Fowler was fairly sure that the mineshop near the tips at Pikelaw had a knock stone and Paul Rodriques mentioned at least one well up the valley from Feldon smeltmill.

Just out of interest there are a few large flat stones by the bouseteam near the dressing floor at Pikelaw and a group of maybe three together, could be the remnants of a knocking wall or just happenstance?

Jim
Click to expand...

Some can look a bit like this example Jim - https://skfb.ly/pssxQ

We think this one is an example of an early, and portable, Knockstone. It's obviously been someones favourite as it's well worn and dished on both faces. Portable in this respect isn't quite the same as our modern meaning with phones and tablets 😲- it weighs a lot and certainly doesn't fit in your pocket!

If anyone ever sees or finds anything like in the model, then please let me know - we're interested in getting a better idea of where they're found, and in what sort of quantity too - especially within the North Pennine Orefield.
 
There's one example of a portable knockstone I can think of offhand in the Peak District, below the crushing circle at Odin Mine. I'll dig out the report I did for the PDMHS newsletter later.
 
From PDMHS Newsletter no. 140:
"Outside the mine, set into the path running from the crushing circle down to the Odin Sitch stream is a small block of stone with a hollowed top. This may be a knockstone used for ore dressing prior to the use of the crushing circle for mineral processing, though given the extensive disturbance to the hillocks in the past it is highly unlikely to be in its original location if it is such."

After this was published Trevor Ford contacted me to mention he'd found two similar knockstones at Odin in the 1970s, and published a photo in the bulletin - I can't find this in the online articles so it may have been missed when they were scanned, but for reference it's PDMHS Bulletin vol 6 no.2 p.106

Edit - found it, it's on the end of this article: https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/B...nds' Recollections of Magpie Mine in 1924.pdf
 
Thanks Adam - that's brilliant. From the description and photo in the article it looks quite similar to the one we found, that is dished on both sides too.
AR. said:
From PDMHS Newsletter no. 140:
"Outside the mine, set into the path running from the crushing circle down to the Odin Sitch stream is a small block of stone with a hollowed top. This may be a knockstone used for ore dressing prior to the use of the crushing circle for mineral processing, though given the extensive disturbance to the hillocks in the past it is highly unlikely to be in its original location if it is such."

After this was published Trevor Ford contacted me to mention he'd found two similar knockstones at Odin in the 1970s, and published a photo in the bulletin - I can't find this in the online articles so it may have been missed when they were scanned, but for reference it's PDMHS Bulletin vol 6 no.2 p.106

Edit - found it, it's on the end of this article: https://pdmhs.co.uk/MiningHistory/Bulletin 6-2 - Stanley Rowlands' Recollections of Magpie Mine in 1924.pdf
Click to expand...
 
ElectroNick said:
Do you have any more details on that Jim - do you know which valley he meant - the Feldon, Harehope or Burnhope valley?
Click to expand...
I think it was somewhere around Feldon Linn, but that was 5/6 years ago and at the time he was being a bit cagey about precisely where he was exploring although he did mention the waterfall in relation to a level in the area. I no longer have a contact for him although he's still active as he helped in exploring the maze cave at Cutthroat Meas (details in MSG 14) up above Burnhope Reservoir.

Jim
 
Cheers Jim - I was curious as the workings up the Feldon burn are quarries to the best of my knowledge. I'll have a closer poke around at some point and have a chat with someone who knows the land there intimately, see if they know of anything.
 
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