Killhope Wheel
The entrance to Park Level Mine at the North of England Lead Mining Museum
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 Location within County Durham
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| Established | 1984 |
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| Location | Nr Cowshill, County Durham |
| Coordinates | 54°46′59″N 2°16′23″W / 54.78306°N 2.27306°W |
| Type | Mining |
| Public transit access | Bus, terminates at Cowshill |
| Website | Killhope Official Site |
The North of England Lead Mining Museum, also known as Killhope, is an industrial museum near the village of Cowshill, County Durham, England. The museum stands on the site of the former Park Level Mine, which is being restored to show the workings of a 19th-century lead mine.
The museum is located alongside the Killhope Burn, about 4 km upstream from Cowshill, and is accessible via the A689 road between Stanhope, County Durham and Alston, Cumbria.
It is situated in the heart of the North Pennines, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, an area that, in 2003, was designated the first Geopark in Great Britain.
The museum is open every day between 1 April and 31 October, but is closed (except to pre-booked groups) during the winter months, when weather conditions in the area can be severe. A bus service operates through Weardale; services usually terminate at Cowshill, but some summer services will continue to Killhope on request.
Lead ore in the North Pennines occurs in mineralised veins within the Carboniferous rocks of the area. Until the mid-19th century, exploitation of these ore bodies was mostly confined to surface excavations and vertical shafts. From 1818, mining in the area was controlled by W B Lead Co, a mining company established by the Blacketts, a prominent Newcastle family which had leased mining rights in Weardale from the Bishop of Durham.
In 1853, W B Lead began driving the Park Level Mine, which eventually intersected 11 mineral veins. As the mine developed, so did the surface workings. In 1858, a "mineshop" was built to accommodate the miners; the population density in such a remote area was very low and, until then, miners had been faced with a long daily walk to and from the mine. In 1862, storage bays ("bouse teams") were constructed, to store the raw lead ore (the "bouse"), and washing rakes were installed, in which water was used to separate the lead ore in the bouse from the waste material. In 1878, soon after the mine struck the richest of the veins, the Park Level Mill was brought into operation, to speed up the process of washing the ore. The main feature of the mill was a large waterwheel, the "Killhope Wheel".
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