Pennines

The northern Pennines around Alston Moor contain rich veins of lead beneath their high moorland and river valleys. Mining expanded greatly in the eighteenth century. The London Lead Company acquired leases in the district and became a major employer, while the rights to much of Alston Moor passed to Greenwich Hospital after the Earl of Derwentwater forfeited them. Farms remained scattered among the workings, and many households combined mining with agriculture.