These families from around the small hamlet of Hurst up above Reeth in Swaledale are fascinating to research from a family history perspective, of course; but they are interesting social, and industrial history studies as well.
Two hundred years ago the dale 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 seem 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, my great grandmother.
The lives of these families, I find 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.
The Northern Mine Research Society have so much information and research available. Much of it is online and free to non-members but I joined anyway to lend support.
At the time of writing, I've gone back as far as John Hillary who was born in 1753. This branch of the Hillary family at that time lived at Slack Hills, a smallholding between Washfold and Shaw. They may have supplemented their living with some farming, but the main occupation was lead mining. The whole family would have been involved with lead production. Women and children would have been busy washing, sorting and dressing the mined ore whilst also keeping up with household chores.
As the family expanded, they lived in several places in the area. We can still find some of them in and around Hurst. Even the ones no longer standing, we can see where they were and it is beautiful country to wander around and explore.
Our line, John's son George Hillary, brought his family up at Level Houses. This is a row of cottages near the crossroads at Hurst where the telephone box and notice board are. This was where some of the main mine working were. There was a big water wheel, a tramway leading out of the Queen's Level, and depot buildings for the mined ore. In the book "A History Of the Manor and Lead Mines of Marrick, Swaledale" by L. O, Tyson, there is an old photo of Level Houses. The buildings still exist but are now divided into two or three cottages. In 1826, George's wife, Susanah Garthwaite, died but he went on to marry Sarah Hird the next year and had a further nine children, although not all of them survived. Those cottages at Level Houses must have been quite crowded at times!
Moving on a generation to George's children: Our ancestor, George Hillary, came from his first marriage but first, a quick mention of the eldest son, John Hillary who married Isabella Guy and moved back to Slack Hills. John also had a large family of ten children and by 1881 had become a mine agent - a general manager or representative of the mine owners.
Sometime before 1851 George's family moved from Level Houses to Lane Head, a farm just over the beck from Slack Hills and the hamlet of Shaw. The building is gone now but you can see where it stood on aerial photographs and old maps.
Lane Head is closer to Prys Level where there was a lot of development in the latter days of the mining operation at Hurst. Also close by are some shafts called Hillary Holes which date from 1782. We can't usually tell which family members worked where and when, but we do know from the Kinnaird Commission Report that both John and George were working at The Queen's Level in 1863.
My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Hillary, was George and Jemima March's fifth daughter. As a young woman, she was living through the decline of lead mining in Hurst. Like many at the time she left the area to find work as a domestic servant before marrying William Wray in Richmond in 1892. I only discovered recently that she had an illegitimate daughter, Mary Hillary, born in 1884. This came as a surprise because my granny always gave the impression of the family being staunch Wesleyans! In fact I have Elizabeth's bible which was presented to her from the Wesleyan Chapel in Hurst in 1872. Elizabeth was born at Lane Head and moved to a house called Garth Head House in Hurst before she was 12. I haven't found Garth Head yet which is a frustration. Mary lived at Garth Head until around 1930 and then lived at Wesley Cottage, Reeth until her death in 1955. She never married.