Industrial archaeology

The North Pennines are littered with the remains of its lead mining past ...

One of the most impressive surface remains is the 2 mile long smelter flue system at Allendale, built to carry fumes from the smelter in Allendale village up to a pair of chimneys on the moor. This was not to keep the highly toxic fumes away from the village but rather to allow lead in the fumes to condense. Every now and then some poor so and so was sent along the flue to scrape the stuff off the wall ...

Here endeth the History lesson!

Have a good week ahead ...
A few days teaching for me ...