Beautifully engraved certificate from the Nidderdale Lead Mining Company Limited issued in 1865. This historic document has an ornate border with a vignette of view of Persererance Level Entrance to Mine - Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire. This item has the signatures of the Company's directors and is over 141 years old.
Certificate Vignette Lead mining has taken place on the hills above Pately Bridge for thousands of years, in Roman times worked by slave labour following the defeat of the Brigantes in battle. In a valley dominated by agriculture and production for the home, the beginning of the nineteenth century saw the factory system come to Nidderdale, following inventions in Leeds which allowed the mechanisation of flax spinning, powered by water. The earlier pattern of settlement was characterised by isolated farms and small hamlets, but the villages of Glasshouses and Summerbridge owe their existance to the mills. The signs of quarrying may be found up and down the valley, Scotgate Ash quarry provided fine sandstone for The National Gallery in London and the surviving quarry at Coldstones provides limestone for road building. Commercial interests in Pately Bridge pressed for the construction of a rail link, which was built in 1862 and closed in 1964.