Chapter 11.

The lengthy dispute over water rights resulted in the demise of the Scots Mines Company and left all the mines in Leadhills in the hands of one employer: the re-formed Leadhills Mining Company. It was organised on traditional lines being composed of twelve partners, who mustered a nominal capital of £105,000 in £100 shares and secured a lease for 31 years. The new company included some of the original partners, as well as R.& W.Jeffreys, two mill owners with businesses in Glasgow and Kirkcaldy, and a John Proudfoot who had an address in Liverpool. By then Hunter, who had originated the Snarhead Company was dead, and the driving forces were William Muir and Eagle Henderson of Leith.

The latter died soon after the company began work, leaving Muir in control. He had an estate at Instrych, premises at the Wet Dock, Leith, and houses and, or, offices there in Quality Street and Wellington Street. It was a connection with the port which extended back to the seventeenth century.

The new Company secured an able manager, John Niven, and he boldly tackled the rundown state of the mines. There had been no real investment for over twenty years, so he no doubt believed that any effort must bring reward. British lead mines were enjoying a boom. For example the Minera mine in Wales, with a capital of £45,000, made a profit of £64,000 in 1864, when its £25 shares changed hands at £175.

Niven believed water was the most satisfactory source of power and, to ensure an adequate supply, and overcome the problems of summer shortages, a reservoir holding 60 million gallons (270 M litres) - the largest on any mine in Britain - was built on the Shortcleugh. The open leats, often choked with winter snows, were replaced by a net-work of about 7 miles (12 Km.), of tile-clay pipes, said to cost £650 per mile. The new aqueduct was about 10 M. lower than the old No 3 leat and followed its line to Susanna. Branches from it took water to engines and wheels. These comprised four water-pressure engines for pumping; and a pressure engine and four waterwheels driving winders underground. There were other wheels at the dressing floor and the smelt mill, and a turbine powered the workshop. The pump installed in the shaft at Katy Stak Linn was driven by an unusually large water engine, 24 ins (.61M) in diameter with a stroke of 10 feet (3.05M).

Many of the mines had not been adequately maintained during the years of the dispute. In 1855 the Earl of Hopetoun's agent had complained that the Glengonnar shaft threatened to fall in, and various reports had criticised the state of Gripps level. In 1860 a number of surveys were made by consultants which included Captain W.H.Vivian. He was a mining engineer with an international reputation and one of the long line of eminent men who visited Leadhills.

The repairs which followed these reports included installing the iron pipe now at the Gripps portal. But there is no evidence that anything stronger than timber was used elsewhere. In the Northern Pennines the practice was to reinforce the major levels with arches of stone or brick, but there was no such expenditure in Gripps, and the lack of investment in long term ground support created problems which remain to the present time.

The terms of lease required that work should be put in hand to extend the level southwards to Katy Stak Linn, and westwards to the Glengonnar shaft and the Hopeful and Stayvoyage veins near the boundary with Wanlockhead. As had been the case before, a minimum of 50 pickmen were to be employed, but this time the exception clause included "combinations and strikes".

The best prospects were seen as being in the south, and Reids shaft was sunk deeper to work the Raik vein to 60 fathoms (110 M.). By 1876 it was said the ore there was 24" (600 mm) thick, and bargains rated at £4 per ton had raised 530 tons in 3 months. Moving material underground was always a major expense so a horse level was driven to connect with Poutshiel, and by 1868 over 4 Km of tramway had been laid to move ore out to a new dressing plant.

Here, the machinery was driven by two water wheels. Porteous wrote the plant was worked by 11 men, and ore was being dressed at 5/- (25p) per ton.

The Company also re-built the smelt mill with 2 roasting hearths, 4 ore hearths, and a slag hearth, and there was a proposal to add a silver refinery. It is not clear what was done about this, but after 1862 silver was produced at a recovery rate of about 3 oz per ton, and fetched 5/- per oz.

The miners now had the benefits of improved steels for their tools, and the use of dynamite meant less explosive was needed, so the shot holes could be smaller in diameter and drilled faster. The invention of the safety fuse lessened the risk of premature explosion, but no control was exercised over the use of the dynamite and in 1874 a miner and his sister were to be badly injured when a stick exploded in their cottage.

All the lead from both mines was now dispatched by rail. Little is known of the wider markets this afforded, but there are records of lead was sent south to Newcastle and Liverpool. The former becoming the destination for much of the Leadhills output. The railway may have taken Leith's export business but a local lead industry continued for by 1869 Messrs T.B.Campbell's "manufactory" was producing over 1000 tons of leaden goods on the Forth.

* * *

The restarting of operations brought men back to Leadhills. By the time the water dispute ended the population had fallen to 842, but in 1871 it was up to 1033. However the men came back to what was perhaps a tighter regime, for the large investment meant there had to be a further effort to transfer the control of production from the bargain takers to the management. Borron's attempts were at best fragmented and he had looked to the overseers to implement his instructions. Niven left no room for argument and he drew up a set of rules and displayed it the work-shops.

The need for published rules was perhaps symbolic of the way the management now saw its relationship with the employees. In spite of his strict regime, Borron had vacillated in his dealings with the men, and it could be supposed that the overseers were not above bending the rules to their own ends. Now, the rules were formal, impersonal, and set out for all to see, so regulations were explicit and firm.

They were similar to those being applied in Cornwall at that time. Most related to the bargain takers and the first of them demanded that the men should work "regularly", and start and finish on time. Employees were a part of a production process; gone was the independence of the old bargain structure. Gone was the concept that the miner sold the fruits of his labour. Now a regularity of work, and therefore output, was the aim, and the process begun by Borron was taken forward in line with experience elsewhere.

The miners worked eight hour shifts, the daywage men ten hours, Monday to Friday, and were expected to put in six hours on Saturday, 56 hours a week. On a Saturday they had also to attend at the mine office and hand in their time sheets, and on a Monday one man from each partnership collected candles etc., so there was no excuse to leave the mine during a shift. Men would have to assist with the machinery if required, and if the time taken was less than 3 hours, then they "would attend gratis". To "guard against accidents" it was the responsibility of the men themselves to point out to the overseers any parts of the mine they considered to be dangerous.

Economic sanctions can have had little relevance when men were paid once a year; now they became a basis for the control of the labour force. Men caught cheating their bargain marks could still "be excluded from the mines", and anyone using "uncivil language" could be sacked on the spot. But most other offences incurred fines which were deducted from wages. The usual rate for misdemeanours relating to mining operations was 2/6 (12.5p), but drunkenness in the village, and not just in the works, rated 5/- (25p) for the first offence. It may be noted that a similar fine for "singing or drunkenness" was usual in the textile mills. Fines were paid into a sick fund; a common practice and one which tied benefit to misdemeanour.

* * *

The sick might be cared for by their employers or their fellows, but, in Scotland, the provision for the poor and infirm was responsibility of each parish. Changes in the status of the Scottish Church led to the setting up of Parochial Boards of Management in 1846, and in 1862 the powers of such bodies were extended by new Statutes to provide the beginnings of local government.

Leadhills was the largest community in the parish of Crawford but its affairs were managed from that village by a Board dominated by landed interests. In 1865, the date of the earliest extant Crawford Parish Record, there were 18 persons, more than half the total and including a 5 year old orphan girl, registered for poor relief at Leadhills. Ten years later the number had risen to 38, the majority women over 60 years of age.

The poor at Leadhills also had an annual donation from the Earl of Hopetoun and, after 1872, they had support from the Grierson Bequest. James Grierson, the friend of William Gibson, had emigrated to Buenos Aires, and had made a fortune there leaving half of it to his native village. The Kirk Session was empowered to award up to £4 annually to 70 "poor and deserving persons", and money was also available to enable boys from Leadhills to go to the University in Edinburgh.

Another charity was "The Lady's Fund" , established by the Countess of Hopetoun, and which provided 10/- (50 p) to 30 selected villagers. A feature of such charities was that they were particularly intended for those deemed to be "deserving".

In 1862 almost all the villagers subscribed to a gift to the Countess of 689 grains of gold, writing how they were "deeply sensible of the benefits received by ourselves and our ancestors from the Family of Hopetoun". Exceptions to this gesture were the three smelters and their refusal was noted on the "Memorial".

The village itself had suffered by reason of men being laid off during Borron's rule, and in the lean years of the dispute between the mining companies. Cottages had fallen into disrepair, and to deal with this situation loans of £20, to be repaid at 5%, were advanced to those miners wishing to rebuild or renovate their properties. Many houses now had timber floors installed by digging out the earth to a depth of about 30 cms. and laying a "floating" floor on "dwarfie" walls or else on a fill of large stones.

Significantly, the agreement had a clause which stated "No legal title can be granted to the site of the said house", and another asserted "no persons not in employment to be lodged with-out permission". Record shows one of those who got the advance was a Thomas Hope who had been working as a collier in Carluke, and who had returned to Leadhills by 1870.

No mine journals remain for the years after 1854, so there are no details as to the day to day business of the new administration. Neither are there any diaries or collections of letters which might tell of the way new managers were received, and other sources have now to be examined for the story of the lead miners.

* * *

The winter of 1862 was a severe one, made worse by a diseased potato crop, and a correspondent to the Hamilton Advertiser noted that "hardship presses on the poor". But the Royal wedding in the following March provided for celebration at Leadhills. The paper reported how seventy of the deserving villagers each received a "spiced loaf with tea and sugar", and all were entertained by fireworks.

The new company met the bills and the occasion no doubt enabled Niven to establish a relationship with the villagers. Another opportunity was provided by the management giving medals at the annual Cattle and Flower Shows. A Welsh agricultural report claimed that livestock from lead mining areas were seen as of poor value, but in 1853 a visitor described the animals around Leadhills as of prize quality.

There is no record that Gibson's "diabolical characters" ever got the wooden troughs they sought for a supply of drinking water but, following recommendations by Captain Vivian and other consultants, an old mine on Broadlaw was dammed off to serve as a reservoir and its water piped to fountains in the village. The supply was later regarded by the County Medical Officer as "very good", and "not contaminated". That the supply was in fact polluted by lead was not a consideration at that time. A committee of the miners seem to have organised the work, and it applied in vain to the Parochial Board for a grant towards some of the costs. Some of the expense was in fact met by donations, and an extant fountain still has the inscription "provided by Mrs Niven".

By 1864 over two hundred houses were occupied, and there were 300 acres of smallholdings; 105 cows; and 75 sheep. In 1869 a review of Scottish industry contrasted the "cheerful" appearance of Leadhills with the "bad" impression created by the congested colliery villages.

A variety of social activities also came to the fore. Fishing was always a popular, if perhaps solitary, pastime; now the new reservoir offered the opportunity for corporate effort, and in 1864 an Angling Club was founded to stock it with trout. This probably accounted for the library obtaining Buckland's Fish Hatching, and later, Walton's The Complete Angler.

The landowners also enjoyed shooting parties on the grouse moors, and at Wanlockhead at least it was customary to present the bag of rabbits and hares to the village.

Sometime in the 1860s the Leadhills Reading Society began obtaining books via funds made available by the Ferguson Bequest. This led to an outside interest in the way the library was being run, and at a meeting in 1872 the committee were told the administrators of the Bequest had "found fault with the management". The complaint seems to have been aimed at the complexity of the Rules, but it was resolved, at least in the short term, and the Bequest continued.

In 1871 the Freemasons established a Lodge, the Lodge Hopetoun, the choice of title perhaps pointing to an identification with landed interests. The 1860s saw a rise in Territorial regiments, and in 1875 John French Niven, who had taken over from his father in 1867, formed a corps of the Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers. It not only enhanced his own standing in the county, but was no doubt expected to encourage loyalty in his men who were issued with uniforms which included red jackets and shako caps.

The library was never a wholly satisfactory venue for village meetings, and in 1873, when repairs were needed to the building, it was proposed that this should be raised to two storeys, the library above and a hall below. The cost was put at £130, but there seemed no prospect of raising such a sum, so the proposal was put aside. The repairs were however put in hand in 1874; paid for by a cess on the members. There were now 93 of them and they raised £39-15-4. The work included moving the outer door to the centre of the building, and taking away the rails which had guarded the book shelves.

John Hope, the temperance reformer, had begun an association with Leadhills in the 1840s, but it was 1871 before the leading temperance organisation, the Rechabites, motto "Peace and Plenty are the Reward of Temperance", had a branch in the village. There were also the Good Templars, who formed the Heatherbell Lodge in 1872; and the Forresters: the Allan Ramsay Court. The Order of Good Templars had a strong Socialist ethic and included labour leaders like Keir Hardie among its members.

The contemporary bodies at Wanlockhead also included an Oddfellows Lodge, a Temperance and Savings Society and a Mutual Improvement Society. Such a plethora of organisations was not unusual and in his account of Cornish miners, Price remarks "never were people more divided into factions".

The miners' wages were said to be 15/- (75p) per week, and the subsistence advance was 2/- (10p) per shift or £2-10s (£2.5) a month, in cash. Credit via a truck shop being "prohibited". The subsist was similar to that recorded in 1862 as given to the miners working for the Derwent Company. But a local poet. Thomas Gracie, who was born in Wanlockhead in 1861, wrote that the 15/- earned by his father provided no more than "comparative poverty".

The 1851 census returns had recorded 38 women and girls working at sewing and flowering, another 5 who "owned a little land", and 3 working on the dressing floors. The market for flowering declined following the introduction of machine embroidery, and by 1871 there were only 12 working at the craft in Leadhills. An alternative source of employment for the girls in both villages was to go into domestic service. Perhaps, like Florence's maid in Dombey & Son, some could claim "I've put money in the Savings Bank", but most would have had little to send home.

In the event, another source of income was to originate via John Hope. In 1859 he had arranged with Dr James Martin for a party of boys, "aged about 10 years", to holiday in the village during the summer months, and in the 1860s boys from Edinburgh and Glasgow were visiting Leadhills on a regular basis. As well as attending lectures on the evils of drink and the perils of "popery", they indulged in sports, including cricket matches against the local lads. They also took "long walks" and regaled themselves with "tea parties".

These visitors seem to have encouraged others to take "summer lodgings" in the village, but by the 1870s there were complaints in the Hamilton Advertiser about the lack of "refreshments", the smell from the burn, and the poor state of the graveyard. In spite of such shortcomings, the holiday business expanded providing an additional source of income for many villagers.

* * *

The second half of the century also saw developments at Wanlockhead where, as already mentioned, the Duke of Buccleuch had taken over the mines. By 1870 an ornate brick engine house had been built at the Bay mine, but the arrangement of the vertical 33HP water-pressure engined pump which was installed in the shaft had that frugal quality which seems to have been very much a part of investment at both Leadhills and Wanlockhead, for it proved insufficient to deal with the water and a drive from the steam winding engine was added. This too failed to cater for the occasional flooding in the deeper workings, and a water-wheel, its pit can still be seen in Whytes Cleuch, was later built to further increase pumping power.

A tramway ran along the hillside from the Bay Mine to the smelter, and the latter was re-built and a silver refinery, to the Pattison process, added. The Wanlockhead veins were not only rich in silver but some contained zinc blende as well and from 1875 this was worked to profitable advantage.

After 1861 the Leadhills miners were paid quarterly but the old practice of the yearly pay continued at Wanlockhead. For nearly three decades many of the men there had chaffed at the way their lives continued to be dominated by credit dependent bargains. Writing some years before, a visitor had complained how this

fostered a spirit of improvidence. The miner is always sanguine. He hopes the vein will

render a larger return. If he requires ready money, then the cashier will supply this

ruinous resource, (and his) debts hang like millstones.

Such remarks implied cash would be squandered, and their tone was echoed by a speaker at a conference in Glasgow in 1860, who claimed that miners could be divided into the "prudent who waited for their wages, and the improvident who lived on credit". A superintendent at the London Lead Company's mines in Teesdale would have agreed. When a delegation complained about the low level of earnings there, he told them that it was only those who were "lazy and unable" who could not make a reasonable wage.

In reality the whole economy of metalliferous mining turned on a system which played on the speculation of bargain working and which was well expressed in the following verses composed by a Cornish miner.

The month has nearly ended

and he severe has wrought.

Day after day in darkness

and it was all for nought.

The mineral vein has faded,

and now all hope has fled.

Tomorrow should be payday

and his children have no bread.

As already remarked, the Wanlockhead miners petitioned the Duke of Buccleuch in 1846 complaining of the lengthy and irregular pays. Their bargains were only settled once during the year, and a "two year lie was kept in hand".

The principal store, at which the villagers bought meal and meat, was managed by the agent, James Stewart, much in the same way as Borron once ran the store at Leadhills. The investigator for the Children's Employment Act of 1844 reported that the store was "a species of truck" but believed it "would be discontinued" if it proved "injurious to the mining families". The 1844 report was favourable to the store, pointing out that it looked to make a profit of only 5% compared with the 10% made by retail shopkeepers.

Nevertheless, although neither village had the sort of "tommy shops" which were little more than drinking dens, the Wanlockhead store was a part of the whole business of the mines. Not only a part of the bargain system, but subsistence maintained a credit economy which contributed to the sort of social control advanced by Stirling and Meason. The miners were credited with goods as required, and it was claimed "those in credit (can) get cash at all times". But all subsist, whether in goods or cash, was debited against the bargain earnings, and credit could be at the whim of the management who were said to "make fish of one, flesh of another".

In 1853, and when the abuse of the truck system was getting much publicity, some of the Wanlockhead men complained about the situation there in a letter to one of the local papers. This in turn was countered by another, supported by 182 of the miners, which claimed that Stewart's store had no monopoly and, as he also had a farm, the food he sold was of good quality.

"Dissatisfaction" nevertheless continued and it was said that there were "disturbances" in the 1860s, In a letter to the Glasgow Herald in July, 1870, the anonymous writer claimed "there were things done (at Wanlockhead) which could not stand the light of day, (but) the men dare not complain". There had been a surge in emigration to America, and by then three parties, perhaps over a hundred villagers, were said to have left; some to the "gold diggings" in California, others to work in the mines and ironworks of Pittstown.

In America some of the emigrants met the Scottish miners' leader, Alexander Macdonald, and, having heard their story, he asserted a "grievous hardship" existed at Wanlockhead, and pressed that the Truck Commission should visit to examine the

practices there, even although lead mines were not seen as within its remit.

Members of the Commission came in September, 1870, and interviewed some of the miners. By then there were three shops connected with the mines; Stewart had the principal store; the cashier's wife managed a drapery shop; and one of the overseers sold milk.

Stewart stated he "felt aggrieved" about the Commissions' interest and claimed he had been "abused" by anonymous letters. When he met it's members, it was remarked how he brought only "old men" with him. One of them, Gilbert Jamieson, a miner for fifty years, said he "always got money when (he) asked for it". Another, John Nicol, when asked if he would like to be paid more often, replied "we have never been tried with that and I cannot say whether or not we should relish it".

The Commission noted that the miners "looked comfortable and well cared for", but it's report also remarked on

"the great evils of an arrangement where the men were paid in January 1871 the balance of

wages due since January 1869, while in the interval goods on credit are supplied by their

employer and his servants".

The commissioners concluded that the arrangement was "a union of separate functions .. calculated to lead to abuses". And they might have pointed out that it did not allow the miners "justice" in the way they were reimbursed for their toil.

Although the Commission found that the men were "kindly treated"; its Report pointed to "great evils" in some aspects of the administration. The findings indicated the divisions among the workforce. Those who protested had left, either of their own volition or because they had been refused work. Others, and they seem to have been a majority, were contented with their lot. They were "given" what they needed, and they did not look for change since it could be something they "had never been tried with".

It was in fact a time of discontent in the industry. Writers to the Mining Journal in the 1860s and '70s complained about "worsening labour relations", and asked "why cannot the lead miners be paid weekly like other workmen". Others disagreed with liberal sentiments and wrote how business was being threatened by "ill considered demands".

The dissatisfaction with Stewart's management seems evidenced by the way miners were prepared to take complaints past him and address petitions to the Duke. The latter did not always take their side, but in November, 1870, he allowed a meeting between some of the men and his factor, Gilchrist Clark, and some grievances were at last dealt with. There would be a quarterly pay; bargain rates would give optimum weekly earnings of 16/- (80p); and the men would take over the running of the company store. However shifts would be of eight hours and the "privilege" of extra earnings via adventuring was stopped.

James Stewart died in 1871 and Thomas Barker Stewart took his father's place. The elder Stewart had managed the mines for 40 years so the way was open for change. Young Stewart had been an able engineer to the mines and may well have taken increased responsibility during his father's latter years.

The miners decided to run the store as a co-operative, and by 1875 it had 180 members and a capital of £507. The Scottish Co-operative Society had been founded in 1868, and the stores which opened in both villages were not only an example of combination towards a common good, but also demonstrated how a small community could combine to successfully manage a commercial undertaking.

Some complaints had been dealt with, but there were still murmurs of discontent, particularly because of the removal of the right to 'venturing. The boys whose ordinary work contributed to the charity bargains seem to have been at the forefront of the unrest on this occasion, and petitions were again addressed to the Duke in November and December 1871, apparently without response. Evidence is at best fragmentary, but the affair, and that relating to the stores, suggest a rising militancy among the younger men.

* * *

In 1874 162 miners at Leadhills raised enough ore for 1500 tons of lead bars, but in 1876 the Leadhills Mining Company sold out, and this resulted in fundamental changes in financial structures and management attitudes. The buyer was not a mining company as such, but a syndicate who paid £75,000 for the mining rights and equipment. To work the mines, the Leadhills Silver-Lead Mining and Smelting Company Ltd. was floated in September 1876, with a capital of £120,000 in a public issue of £6 shares. The new company then bought out the syndicate for £100,000. Such transactions reflected the way mines were now objects of sophisticated speculation and money could be made without a skip of ore being raised.

None of the founders were Scots, several came from Shropshire and the man behind the scheme was a Londoner, Peter Watson. He was born in 1830 and by 1852 was noted as a "Mine Secretary and Share Dealer". He became a member of the Stock Exchange; chairman of the London Metal Exchange and a director of several Cornish mines; and his place in the society of his day was further assured by his being appointed a Justice of the Peace, a Councillor for Middlesex, and a member of the Royal Artillery Company. He was described as a "jovial John Bull with a bluff and autocratic personality".

This predominance of English interests led a correspondent to the Hamilton Advertiser to complain "a valuable treasure of Scotland is now in English hands". The remark perhaps reflected the way some believed Westminster was having a destructive influence on Scottish institutions at the time.

The whole character of the Leadhills Silver-Lead Mining and Smelting Company reflected the sort of limited liability company which was coming to the fore in the last half of the nineteen century. Gone were the partnerships who had an active interest in the mines they managed. In their place came financiers and shareholders, whose interests were profit driven and who had little knowledge of the companies they owned, or concern about the employees; and who demanded a management aligned to financial objectives. This situation caused much concern among the older school of mining engineers, and in 1874 the Honorary Secretary to the Miners' Association of Cornwall, John Collins, protested

Welsh mines in particular were seen as objects of fraudulent dealings in the 1860s and 70s, and even in 1885 the editor of the Mining Journal was writing of the "gross dishonesty of jobbers and speculators".

Such comments received scant attention by the new company and it held its first meeting in 1877 in a mood of unbounded optimism. Peter Watson was appointed chairman and he stated the mines at Leadhills were in excellent condition and quoted a "visiting engineer" who had asserted they were "the best he had ever seen". Since 1861 £208,000 had been invested in the mines of which £32,785 was spent on the reservoir, water engines, and the ore dressing floor, where machinery was replacing manual labour..

The Scots Mines Company cannot have invested much on plant during Borron's regime, but at Wanlockhead James Stewart had spent £6879 on the smelter at Meadowfoot, and £3000 a few years later on the fume condenser and flues.

It was stated that some improvements were all that were needed to make the mines the "most profitable in the country". These would include modifications to the smelt mill; more powerful pumps, and the introduction of air drills, then being tried in the Cornish mines with some success. The workforce were said to be an "excellent class of men", who enjoyed wages of "£1 per week". More, it was asserted, than was paid in Cornwall, the bench mark for all metalliferous mining.

There had not been any attempt to work gold commercially at Leadhills since the 1790s, now the new company would try again. In 1876 the book God's Treasure House had made a careful assessment of the potential for working the gold in the Lowther hills. It had been written by the Rev Moir Porteous, who had succeeded Hastings as Free Church minister at Wanlockhead, and copies found their way to London where it was reviewed in the mining press. It was remarked that Porteous's combination of "ecclesiastical with mining history (was) deplored", but Watson referred to the book and asserted he would "do something about the gold".

By using a "mercury recovery" process, Leadhills would indeed become "God's Treasure House", and a director claimed there was gold worth £5 million in the moors. Previous leases at Leadhills had specifically excluded any working for gold, but Watson negotiated a prospecting licence with the condition that the Earl of Hopetoun would receive 1/30th in royalty.

In spite of the ballyhoo, and a dividend of 12/- (60p), investors were not greatly impressed. Extravagant claims for some Welsh lead mines had become a national scandal, and the £6 shares in the Leadhills Silver-Lead Mining and Smelting Company only rose a few shillings to £6-6s.

The new work was nevertheless put in hand. Improved machinery was installed at the dressing plant, and 210 metres of flues and a new chimney 21 metres high, were built at the smelt mill to improve lead recovery from the fume. It had been found that production could be increased by as much as 6% by the lead obtained from the flue dust, and Thomas Sopwith had pioneered flues 4 KM long at the smelter in Allendale.

A new shaft was sunk on Minehill to the Brown vein. It was to be the centre of operations, and was called Wilson's Shaft, presumably after one of the directors, R.Wilson, a mining engineer who had worked in Australia. By 1879 it had been sunk 27 fathoms (50M.), but trials in it with some sort of air drill proved unsatisfactory.

The shaft was to have two compartments and it was eventually to reach 180 fathoms (330 M) and become notorious for being laddered to the bottom. Mass concrete was used for the mine buildings. This material, laid without any reinforcing but with a fill of stones, became popular in both villages, and was employed for domestic as well as industrial buildings. Water for the mine was brought via tile clay pipes laid along the edge of the old No.2 leat.

In 1877 a moorland tragedy deeply affected both villages. In January that year, a Wanlockhead girl, Janet Miller, who had taken work as a servant on a Clydesdale farm, set out across the Lowther hills to attend her sister's wedding. She was "young and strong and knew the hills" so she did not heed advice; and was caught in a storm and perished in the snow at Katy Stak Linn. Her "bonnet and little bundle" were found at a mine where she had sought shelter. Probably the portal of the old water-level. It was within a mile of safety at a shepherd's cottage.

Niven's son, John French Niven, had continued as agent, but he fell ill and died in 1877 and Thomas Newbigging was appointed in his place. The Newbiggings had been in Leadhills for generations - one was overseer to James Stirling, so the running of the mines was back in local hands. But Newbigging may not have had the reputation needed to impress the shareholders, for a Cornishman Captain Arthur Waters; who was an associate of Watson in developing mines in Shropshire, was appointed as consultant and it was his reports which were read at the annual meetings.

That in 1878 reported 1780 tons of ore had been raised from six veins. The smelter flues had been further extended to 700 yards (650M) and the recovery of lead from the fume had been raised from 250 to 750 bars. No gold had been obtained, but work on a "cradle", a type of buddle, was in hand. At the same time, Watson complained that lead was only fetching £14-15s, so costs had to be cut and both bargain rates and day wages had been reduced.

Readers of the Mining Journal were not impressed. Writing from Wanlockhead, T.B.Stewart warned that the value of lead mines in Scotland were being "puffed up by over optimistic reports". His letter was not explicit, but was later taken by a Leadhills shareholder as "animadverting (censuring) the go-getters of this company". Another correspondent complained the management was "torpid" and should be making a greater effort to increase production, in particular by covering the dressing floors so that work could continue through the winter. A letter signed "An Engineer" poured scorn on Watson's proposals for working the gold and suggested the best use for the cradle would be to "put a baby in it".

There was no dividend in 1879 and no financial report either. The share price was little more than £4, and the chairman remarked that, while the "sun was shining outside, it was not shining on the affairs of the company". Some improvements had been made to the dressing floor, but efforts to work the gold had been held up by bad weather. He again emphasised that the market was depressed, and complained that the Earl of Hopetoun was not sympathetic to pleas to reduce the tack duty. However, Watson sought to lift the spirits of the shareholders by proclaiming that he did not know of a mine with "better prospects"; and he said the miners were so eager to get at the ore they were prepared to take bargains at £4 per fathom. Shareholders remained unimpressed and complained the reports did not present a true picture of the state of the Company's affairs.