Bouse teams at Mohopehead lead mine. Photo Northumberland County Council.

Mohopehead mine. Small mine with adit, lodging shop, spoil heap, set of bouse teams, ?knocking wall. No evidence of ore washing on site. There may be a simple washing floor beneath bouse teams. Site was active between 1820s and 1850s. The bouse teams are the best preserved examples in the North Pennines. (1)

Mohopehead leadmine and ore works. Scheduled on 9th December 1997, national monument number 28554.
The monument includes the remains of a small leadmine and associated ore works situated on the left bank of the River West Allen. The complex was active in the early to mid-19th century between the 1820s and the 1850s.
The visible remains of the leadmine at Mohopehead are well preserved and include an adit, a lodging shop and a spoil heap. The arched stone portal of the mine adit is visible at the extreme western edge of the monument. It still functions as a drainage tunnel and the stream which emerges from it crosses the monument in a narrow channel which in places retains a covering of stone flagging. Some 16m east of the adit there are the remains of a stone built lodging house. The house, now a ruined structure, contains a large hearth at its western end, suggesting that it was used as a blacksmith's forge. The remains of a single pot conical limekiln with one corbelled draw arch are visible immediately to the west of the lodging house. A trackway leads from the area immediately in front of the adit to a prominent spoil heap which occupies the south eastern side of the monument.
The ore processing works are situated at the north eastern side of the monument. Once the lead ore had been removed from the mine it was stored in a series of tall stone containers known as bouse teams. A set of bouse teams, thought to be the best preserved example in the North Pennines, survive and are Listed Grade II. The bouse teams are visible as a series of eight apsidal bays of squared rubble construction, each separated from the other by a stepped wall. They stand largely to their full height. Immediately in front of the eastern end of the bouse teams there is a low stone platform up to 11 courses high and flagged with large stones which is interpreted as a loading platform. This stone structure is also thought to have been used as a knock stone upon which the lead ore was placed and crushed by hand with hammers in order to facilitate further processing.
The lead mine and ore works at Mohopehead are well preserved and are a good example of a single phase small mine. The bouse teams are the best preserved example in the North Pennines, which enhances the importance of the monument. (2)

Bouse team at Mohopehead Mine. Early 19th century. Grade II listed. (3)

The lead mine and ore works at Mohopehead were surveyed by Wardell Armstrong Ltd on 18 and 19 July 2012 in advance of the proposed consolidation of the remains through a Higher Level Stewardship application. This work recorded both the built and standing, though ruined, remains as well as the earthworks of the complex.
The Mine Shop is recorded as a bagled roofless two-storey building constructed of roughly-coursed squared masonry, with alternating long and short quoins. The survey suggests that the first floor was used for the accommodation of the miners, with the ground floor used as a secure store. The building retains some of its original features, including doors and planks, as well as patches of limewashed walls.
The Mine Level, located about 16m to the west of the Mine Shop, survives as a stone-built portal opening and is largely hidden within a small wooded area at the west of the site. It stands about 1.10m high. The adit appears stone-lined in part in examination from the entrance, though this was not examined internally.
The bouse teams are recorded in a ruined condition. It appears that there have been additions and alterations to the original bouse teams, including the addition of a concrete-line sheep dip, relating to sheep farming rather than lead mining as a seriies of pens. These have suffered from water ingress and natural degradation, though may have originally possessed some architectural detailing, but are otherwise the best preserved example in the North Pennines.
The spoil heap of the mine works is located to the south of the Mine Shop and bouse teams, though on the north side of the Mohope Burn.
A series of trackways have been recorded within the industrial site so as to provide access to the lime kiln and mine, bouse teams and spoil heap. No evidence was recorded for the use of any water power by any machinery, with the passage of water largely culverted across the complex. In places these culverts have collapsed. No dvidence was seen of any iron or wooden tracks during the site survey. (4)

Mohopehead Mine (lead), includes teams, a washing place, and a level. (5a)

Shaft shown on 2nd edn 6" map (which was marked on 1st edition but not labelled), 350m WNW of level. (5b)

Mohopehead Lead Mine was worked by the Blackett Beaumont Lead Co. Exploited the Mohope Veins.
Mohope level started at NY 7594 4999 and had a sump connection to the Kiersleywell Level.
Output: 1729-1878, 4200 tons of lead concentrates. (5c)

Mine closed in 1878. (5d)

A ruined mine building, bouse team, dressing floor area and possible buddle associated with the lead mine are visible on air photographs, centred at NY 7702 5499. Trees mask the mine adit entrance, but the a large spoil heap and ramp are visible as earthworks and still exatnt on the latest 2020 photographs.
(5e)