NENTHEAD
| Population: 2074 | Grid Reference: NY785435 | Co-ordinates: 54.785,-2.335 |
Nenthead from the Village Hall
| Nenthead
near Alston is one of
England's highest villages at 1,500 feet (450m) above sea level. In fact it vies with Flash in Staffordshire for the title of highest village in England and indeed the United Kingdom. Officially Flash holds that title but Nenthead, however deserves the title of being one of the most interesting villages in England. Nenthead has it's own flag, registered with the Flag Institute. Flag of Nenthead |  |
 |
Nenthead is
one of the first purpose built industrial villages in Britain.
A
centre for lead, zinc and silver mining, the first smelt mill was built
in 1737 and the village was built soon after. By 1861
Nenthead
was a mainly Methodist village with many of it;s residents employed by
the Quaker owned London Lead Company. In 1896, the Vieille Montagne Zinc Mining Company of Belgium moved into Nenthead and the village enjoyed a period of intense mining activity until 1949 when the company sold it's mining leases and left. Lead mining continued at Nenthead until the 1960's. In 2013 the Canadian company, Minco carried out test drilling for zinc deposits and it is possible that mining my resume, exploiting zinc that was previously unreachable by old mining techniques. Nenthead Village Hall |
Today Nenthead is popular with mine explorers visiting the many miles of levels, stopes, flats and shafts that are still accessible. The Nenthead Mines Heritage Centre is open on selected days from Easter to the end of October and the Carrs Level can be visited by the general public on those days.
Although Nenthead was a Quaker/Methodist village where temperance would have been exercised, the village has a pub, the Miners' Arms which is popular with cyclists on the C2C (Sea to Sea or Coast to Coast) Route as well as visitors to the mines.
 Miners' Arms |
 Nenthead Mines
Heritage Centre
|
 Rampgill Horse Level |