Blaydon, lead foundry

HER Number:
13588

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Blaydon, lead foundry

Place:
Blaydon

Map Sheet:
NZ16SE

Class:
Industrial

Site Type: Broad:
Metal Smelting Site

Site Type: Specific:
Lead Works

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C17

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
The Ryton Foundry for Aldstone Moor opened at Blaydon between 1692 and 1696. It was owned by the London Lead Company. The company was set up 'for the Smelting downe Lead with Pittcoale ans Seacoale'. The foundry had six furnaces. The company chemist Edward Wright perfected the coal-fired reverbatory furnace, which allowed mass production of lead, and the method of extracting silver from lead called cupellation. The head smelter was Thomas Pattison. In 1706 the London Lead Company moved operations to the orefield in Allendale. The Blaydon foundry was bought by Sir William Blackett.

Easting:
183

Northing:
634

Grid Reference:
NZ183634

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Eric Clavering and Alan Rounding, 1995, Early Tyneside Industrialism: The lower Derwent and Blaydon Burn Valleys 1550-1700, Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 5, Vol XXIII, pages 249-268