Wolcleugh Miner's Cottages, Weardale - May 2008

EDIT: Cant seem to edit title but it should be Wolfcleugh. My bad spelling sorry.

Me and Sausage checked this place out. These are some miner's cottages on the site of Wolfleugh Lead Mine in Weardale, County Durham, a beautiful and very wild and desolate area.
Wolfcleugh was a 19th century lead mine and closed in the mid 20th century. There is very little left at the site apart from these cottages and a sealed shaft.

The floors of the upstairs were really quite rotten, and lots of foliage was growing up there.





Very rotten roof!












Ancient gas cooker









Lovely headboard detail



Thanks go to Sausage for letting me know about this one.

What a busy day we had! I've wanted to do this building for ages now. It is sited about a mile downstream from Grove Rake mine. The valley is a remote and bleak place and I was pleasantly suprised at the blue skys we had. On with the pics!

My favourite shot of the day.



A door lock.



Fireplace with the beautiful colours around it.



The obligatory toilet shot.



Many thanks go to BigLoada for putting up with my endless banter.

A very, very nice find guys. Gorgeous fireplaces. Sausage, your favourite shot of the day is superb...love all those slates, beams and brickwork...a mexican wave of a roof!
Good stuff!

Cheers Foxylady! It had such an amazing atmosphere, with the beds and fireplaces intact, and the location is so remote.
A lot of the old mining buildings (of which there are hundreds abandoned here) have been converted into houses but it seems this one is just a little too remote for most people.

Thankyou Foxylady. The slates (actually sandstone) are huge - about the size of gravestones but thinner. The area is a place I hope to move house to in the furure - though not this particular part due to its remoteness! We also found a similar site on the day in another valley nearby. At this other site are two "do-able" adits. Watch this forum for a follow up story!

Sausage said:

...At this other site are two "do-able" adits. Watch this forum for a follow up story!

Click to expand...

Sounds good! Look forward to seeing that.
Thanks for the info redarding the 'slates'. Blimey, more like slabs then! Had a closer look at your pic this time and I can see what you mean now.

Very nice guys.

In picture six (Bigloada's shot) the whole roof looks likely to give at any minute! Any idea where that little boarded up doorway to the left of the fireplace leads to?

Dr.Black said:

Very nice guys.

In picture six (Bigloada's shot) the whole roof looks likely to give at any minute! Any idea where that little boarded up doorway to the left of the fireplace leads to?

Click to expand...

Yes the roof was definitely not safe, although the bit we explored upstairs had a slightly newer floor so it seemed okay, apart from a big hole in the corner.

As for that doorway, it originally led into what appeared to be a kind of kitchen area (where I took the picture of the gas cooker)

excellant,Bigloada and Sausage, stuff like this shows what a hard life these people must have led,especially
in winter, gorgeous countryside though.
makes you realise what we take for comfortable living these days

fantastic place

from the remaining bits of furniture i'd say abandoned in the sixties?

It looks like somebody just decided they'd had enough, packed their bags and went.

Wouldn't have fancied using that outdoor in the winter !!

ricasso said:

excellant,Bigloada and Sausage, stuff like this shows what a hard life these people must have led,especially
in winter, gorgeous countryside though.
makes you realise what we take for comfortable living these days

Click to expand...

The food storage areas were huge - nearly as big as the bedrooms. I guess this was due to the long winters and lack of being able to get out for supplies. They also had lots of hooks inside for hanging stuff like rabbits (there were millions up there!).

Wow nice find there, and some nice pics, but its a pity they have just been left to rot, they would make some very nice houses, and blend in, unlike the horrible Barrat houses thet may replace them