History

The history of our house is tied up completely with the strong lead-mining history of Allenheads. Newhouses was built in 1788 by Sir Thomas Blackett, then owner of the flourishing Beaumont lead mines. The row was called Blackett’s New Houses originally and would have provided homes for some of the families of workers in the Allenheads mine.

Lead miners contracted themselves to work for the mine owner by agreeing a price or “bargain” to extract lead from a particular section of the mine. This allowed them to have greater control over their working hours and it was usual for lead-miners to also have a small-holding which provided food for the family. The fields adjacent to Newhouse were originally used for this purpose.

When Newhouses was built there were five separate dwellings with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.

Until 1989 all water had to be collected from the spring outside. In that year we had a water collection tank and septic tank installed…. so you needn’t worry about having to go outside to the “netty”!

While the house now has all modern comforts, it remains fundamentally unchanged with very thick walls, real fires, polished floors, open spaces and wonderful views.

The following websites give a flavour of the wider community: