place their most deserving workmen, thus combining general utility with the reward of personal merit. The first occupiers took possession of their new abodes in May 1824, accompanied by bands of music, etc." Temperance was required by the company in their new houses. By 1890 the company was starting to suffer from competition, both from other materials and imports. From 1895 onwards the Company slowly scaled down its whole mining enterprise, partly due to the age of the main members of the board, or court, but mainly due to the rapidly shrinking lead market at the time. The Company finally wound up in 1905, selling the mines to the Vieille Montagne Company who worked them for zinc up until the Second World War. Many details about Lead Mining in the NE of England are available from Killhope Mining Museum in Weardale. References Lead mining in the United Kingdom Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Industrial history of the United Kingdom