The Museum of Lead
Mining
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The Museum of Lead
Mining
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Weighing The Lead
| Weighing the Lead | |
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Once
the lead bars, or 'Pigs'
as they were known, had been weighed, they were loaded onto horse drawn
carts and transported 55 miles to the port of Leith near Edinburgh for
export. Each cart held only 5 bars
because of their weight!
A lead 'pig' weighed about 60 kilos (132 lbs). The lead was then transported by sea to Rotterdam and Middleburg which were the main markets for lead, where it was sold for a variety of uses, such as roofing, drainage and the manufacture of munitions.
In the sixteenth
century Dutch and Flemish sculptors started to use lead as an
ornamental material especially for garden ornamentation. Fine examples of decorative leadware can be seen in
Drumlanrig Castle and Hopetoun House: the stately homes of the men who owned the
Wanlockhead/Leadhills orefield. In 1707 the Duke of Buccleuch requisitioned
lead to make the statue of Pegasus which can be seen in the Dumfriesshire village of
Thornhill.
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| Horse Power | |
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The
refined lead had to be delivered to the purchasers and initially the lead
bars were transported by pack-horse, like the ones on the left.
However, by the end of the eighteenth century, a cart track
linking Wanlockhead and Leadhills to the Edinburgh road at Abington had
been formed. By
1770 a track had been created which enabled coal from Sanquhar, eight
miles to the west, to be brought up to Wanlockhead. In the 1740s there were about 4000 cart journeys a year. The carts were hired from local farmers. Lead bars in transit were left at the side of the road, "their weight being their security"! |
| 1777 Act of Parliament | |
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The 1777 Act permitted
Trustees to erect Turnpikes or Toll Houses and they were authorised to
collect Tolls from passing transport. If for example you had a coach,
chariot, landau, waggon or cart drawn by six horses, mares, geldings or
mules you had to pay six shillings. If you had four horses it
would cost you four shillings, two horses two shillings and 8 pence and
one horse one shilling and 4 pence. (Check out shillings and pence here) |
| Turnpikes | |
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In 1880 the whole route was upgraded to form a Turnpike road. Travellers had to pay to use these roads and tolls were collected at Wanlockhead and Leadhills to pay for their upkeep. The actual board which was displayed at the Wanlockhead Toll House is on display at the Museum today.
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| The Railway | |
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Transport was a major
element in the final cost of the lead. In 1789 the cost to Leith was 30 shillings a load (£1.50).
There was a further charge of 3% for shipping and commission. At the time lead
bars were selling at about £20 a ton. A typical miner's wage of
this period was 7 shillings and sixpence (37p) per week!
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