Rookhope Mill

Rookhope (Lintzgarth) Mill
Copyright © Malcolm Street and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Built by the Blackett family in 1737, the Lintzgarth Smelt Mill became the smelt mill for all the leadmines in the Rookhope Valley from 1740. This mill is located on the south side of the Rookhope Burn replaced an older mill further up the valley at Groverake.

The mill had one roasting furnace, three ore hearths and one slag hearth, as recorded in 1821. A waterwheel was used to drive the bellows for the hearth.

In 1883 the Weardale Lead Company took over the mill and a year later it was made bigger to incorporate an extra roasting furnace and a reverberatory smelting furnace.

The poisonous fumes from the mill were passed along a 1½ mile long flue, carried across the Rookhope Burn on a viaduct of arches, before running up the hillside to a chimney on Redburn Common.