The Silver Gill Mine (IA Section)

An online lecture by Warren Allison.

The Silver Gill Mine, located on the Caldbeck Fells at the northern end of the Lake District, is a site of international archaeological importance. Research around the year 2000 proved the mine to be medieval, dating to 1020–1200 AD. The lead and copper mine is also the site of the main Elizabethan mines in the area and was worked by “Germans” for close on 100 years. The underground workings are virtually as they were in this period. It was also, until recently, the site of the earliest underground wooden waggon way in Europe, which the National Railway Museum in York described as being, “the birth of the railway.”

Photo courtesy of Warren Allison

Warren Allison is currently Chair of the Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society (CATMHS) formed in 1979 to explore and research mines and quarries in Cumbria and elsewhere. He comes from a long-standing mining and quarrying family from Coniston in the Lake District before his great-great-grandfather moved to Patterdale at the southern end of Ullswater in the mid 1850’s. His sons and subsequent family, including his mother, worked at the world-famous Greenside lead mine in the parish. His interest in mining came from these family connections to Greenside, which has been his favourite place for 52 years.

If you would like to attend this lecture please contact the organiser (details below). You will receive a Zoom link and an event code. On the day of the talk, the link will take you to the online Waiting Room in the 15 minutes before the talk. Occasionally you may be asked to enter the event code as well, so you should write it down beforehand.