These few ancestoral families from around the small hamlet of Hurst up above Reeth in Swaledale are fascinating to research from a social, and industrial history point of view.
Go there now, and you will find vast swathes of moorland with few inhabitants and even fewer visitors: beautiful. But 200 years ago it was alive with industry. This was lead mining country. It was a valuable and versatile commodity so there was a living to be made digging up the ore and processing it. This is what our ancestors did for a living in these parts and it was dangerous unpleasant work.
It's curious researching family around here because there seems to be relatively few family names, but very large families. Our family names from here include: Hillary, Garthwaite, March, Siddale - all quite common in the area at the time. The last of our direct line to live up there was Elizabeth Hillary...
The people in this section aren't hugely interesting individually, just generation after generation of hewers, miners and lead ore dressers. Collectively though, they are fascinating: how they would have lived, their industry and how they shaped the landscape. Rather than explain all about lead mining, here are some links to explore.