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 Lead miners spent their working lives in cramped passages with poor ventilation and only candles for lighting. Daniel Defoe described a miner as a “subterranean creature ... lean as a skeleton, pale as a dead corpse, his flesh lank ... and something of the colour of lead itself.”
The greatest risk to a lead miner’s health was the belland. Its proper name is plumbism and means lead poisoning. This a description of the dreaded illness: “A continual Asthma or difficulty of Breathing seizes the Patient, with a dejection of Appetite, his Complexion turns pale and yellowish; these are attended with a dry cough and hoarseness; swelling of the joints and limbs ensue, which are rendered useless...”
Miners had great faith in one popular remedy - drinking lots of ale. Leadmining villages had numerous pubs; at one time there were 20 in Winster and 52 in Wirksworth.
Thousands of men and boys must have died through mining accidents. Some accidents were very gruesome, such as falling down shafts. In 1864 a 15-year old boy was somehow drawn up a shaft by his thumb. He was nearly at the top when his thumb came off and he fell to the bottom to his death.
More Information
Dressing Lead Ore
More Pictures
Peak District Mining Museum
Lead Mining
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