Chapter 14.

The settlement which followed the great rally at Leadhills did nothing to improve labour relations at the mines and the coldness between the men and the management went from bad to worse.

Skewis set about breaking down any base for future combinations by refusing work to the more militant miners and dispersing their supporters. Men who had been labouring found themselves working with air drills in the stopes and pickmen were put to tramming ore. However, the end of the strike meant men were now free to look for work at Wanlockhead, and by July thirty were going over the hill to the Glencrieff mine.

There John Mitchell had pulled the venture into shape and in 1911 the output was over 3000 tons of ore. After various trials, he found air-feed telescopic drills, with a water flush, to be the most satisfactory. With them two miners working in a 6 ft x 7 ft heading, could drill 18 holes, 3 feet deep in a shift. Two others would clear the spoil in the shift which followed, so a team of eight could advance a fathom in four shifts.

Mechanisation, and the noise and dust which accompanied it, had at last arrived at the fore-head. But machines reduced the demand for traditional skills. Production was now a target to be set in the office, rather than an achievement at the work place. And bargain working became little more than piecework.

All production at Wanlockhead was from the Glencrieff vein, where Mitchell pushed the 160 fathom level through barren shales to the north, undismayed by its line being off course by 20 fathoms at one point. Eventually his courage paid off by finding a large ore body; "practically a new mine", and worth 1.5 tons of galena per fathom.

The dressing floor and smelt mill were re-built in 1910, and the former was arranged to ensure that zinc blende as well as lead ore was recovered; to be taken elsewhere for refining. The new smelt mill had five ore hearths, each 30" x 22", as well as sinter furnaces and a slag hearth. The fume from them was carried through scrubber condensers and a horizontal settler, and then though 800 metres of flues to the stack on the slopes of Sowen Dod. The silver plant was scrapped and the metal extracted by others.

Mitchell continued to demonstrate that degree of close personal control begun by the old Orcadian, Gilbert Meason, and handed on by James Stewart. The Leadhills strikers had decried the Wanlockhead management as "a vulgar tyranny". It was perhaps vulgar in the sense of common, the ordinary restraints of the work place. At Leadhills the tyranny was autocratic, a provocative oppression by a hierarchy who saw its miners as no more than units in a process of production. The line between a vulgar and an intolerable tyranny can be a fine one, but the management at Wanlockhead had the inestimable benefit of producing results. Stewart had begun the fruitful development of the stopes in Glencrieff; Mitchell had set his miners to drive through the shale barrier to find rich ground beyond. Both had demonstrated that success "animates all the men", and labour relations had profited accordingly.

The differences between the managers at Leadhills and Wanlockhead is also seen in their attitudes to the Royal Commission on Metalliferous mines. When this heard evidence in January, 1911, Bawden Skewis, representing the Leadhills Company, "disapproved" of the certification of supervisory staff, and "strongly objected" to the proposal that chosen miners should be responsible for safety inspections. In the Rules set out in 1864 for the Leadhills mines each man was to be responsible for his own safety. That was clearly the way it was to remain and Skewis claimed there had been only ten notifiable accidents in as many years, most, he said, the fault of the men themselves. Mitchell, on the other hand, had "no objections" to the proposals for safety and inspection, and was in favour of a prescribed routine when handling explosives. The Commission noted that the two men disagreed over a number of issues.

* * *

Peter Watson died in April, 1911 at the age of 81. He was described as "autocratic and dictatorial" by some of his fellows in the business world, but was also said to be a man who was prepared to listen to "title tattle" when he visited his mines, and had "arranged many a difference". Felix Wilson was appointed Managing Director and James Alexander, then in his 70s and in poor health, became Chairman. Watson had at one time dominated the Company's meetings but reports on the proceedings after his death show no obvious change in attitudes, or a better understanding of the labour situation.

At Leadhills the dissatisfaction occasioned by the outcome of the strike continued, and in July the men held a number of meetings in the square on Saturday afternoons. As before, Skewis refused to meet a delegation, and the Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers claimed it was prepared to take the men out again.

The interest and support engendered by the 1909 strike seems to have heightened political awareness in the village, and in 1911 some of the miners, led by John Cameron, formed a branch of the Independent Labour Party. But old traditions remained, for the young Marquis of Linlithgow was presented with rings of Leadhills gold on the occasion of his marriage in April, 1911. The presentation was made by the schoolmaster together with a local farmer, and only one of the miners put his name on the testimonial.

Gathering unrest at the mines came to a head in 1912 with a dispute over moving spoil. Air drills meant a greater advance per shift, so more material had to be moved. Broken ore was a source of profit, the spoil was an oncost and moving it from the working faces was a source of delays. In the 1750s James Stirling had made it a specific bargain task; a century later, William Borron had tried to include the work in the miners' own bargains and Mitchell had had problems at Wanlockhead in 1906. Now Skewis tried to introduce a piece rate of 1/- (5p) per four bogies instead of day wages. In February the trammers stopped work, Skewis declined to meet the Union delegate and dismissed two men for refusing to co-operate. However, on this occasion the dispute was short lived; day work was re-instated, and the company gave all the men a bonus of 5% on their wages, claiming it was continuing a "policy of cultivating friendly relations with its employees".

Pig lead had been around £13 per ton in 1910, but in 1912 it rose above £18. However, the Mining Journal commented the value of this improvement had been reduced by fluctuation in the price of what had been the "most sober of metals". This instability in the metal market would become a feature of the industry.

* * *

That year the collar of the Wilson shaft collapsed, taking the air pipes with it, and output was lost while all was repaired. The installation of the pipework had probably been urged by the need to get compressed air into the mine to beat the strike, and may have been less than well done.

At the Company's meeting in August, 1913, Felix Wilson gave a resume of production from 1878, when the Leadhills Silver Lead Mining and Smelting Company had the ground. He stated that the Raik Vein had been the chief producer, then Brown's Vein was developed, and since the formation of the Leadhills Company Ltd almost all production was from the Brow Vein. Output figures were

Raik. 5,515 tons

Brown 35,827 tons

Brow 21,441 tons

Lead had also been raised in 12 other veins, but, Wilson stated, the amount was "a long way behind".

The same meeting was told that more electric power was needed and a turbine of 125 HP was being installed to utilise the water flowing from the surface wheel by the Wilson mine to the one on Jeffrey's shaft, about 75 metres below. A Pelton wheel had been recommended in 1903, so presumably this was the type used.

In a review of 1913, the editor of the Mining Journal remarked on an improvement in confidence in the metal market, brought about by the satisfactory outcome of a "Peace Conference". But peace was not to be, instead, the First World War broke out on the 1st August, 1914. In an editorial at the beginning of the following year, the Journal remarked that, if it had not been for this "greater tragedy", 1914 would have been the "blackest years mining has ever known". The editor admitted the lead trade was a bright spot for output had increased and, at £19-2-1 a ton, the price was better than it had been from some time. Both Leadhills and Wanlockhead were now among the leading British mines. The former was still depressed by the after effects of the strike and only managed 1049 tons of lead, but the latter produced 2106 tons, second only to Weardale.

To begin with, the mining companies were allowed to meet the problems and demands of the war as best they could, and miners were excluded from call-up. This immunity was ended by the Military Service Acts of 1916, and the categories of exemption were reduced in 1917. In the former year the Ministry of Munitions set up a Department for Mineral Resources Development to ensure the availability of strategic metals. The price of lead was fixed at £29 per ton and zinc at around £4. An embargo was put on any sales without a licence, and the Ministry was later to take possession of all metal, virgin or otherwise. The fixed price ignored the fact that American lead was cheaper, and that a large quantity of zinc had been captured.

* * *

The Wanlockhead mines began the war years at a high rate of production, and in 1915 they raised 3135 tons of lead ore and 1238 tons of zinc blende. 114 men were working underground, and 78 on the surface. Output at Leadhills amounted to 1943 tons of ore, with a labour force of 94 underground and 68 above. On the basis of these figures, the Wanlockhead miners were producing an average of 38.4 tons per man, those at Leadhills only 20.6 tons.

To facilitate the movement of spoil, Mitchell took the bold step of introducing pit ponies. They had been long used in the coal pits, but not in lead mines where the narrow levels mitigated against them, and in Glencrieff the old levels had to be enlarged. But the small shaft, with a cage only 2'6" x 2'9" (760 mm x 840 mm) threatened an insuperable access problem. Mitchell was never one to be daunted, and he had the ponies tied up with the legs against their bodies so "they went down quite comfortably". As in the coal pits, the ponies became objects of affection. J.M.Harkness wrote of their "cheerless stable" and how they had "bid a last good-bye tae God's daylicht".

Mitchell also broke a long convention by employing thirty women underground. In spite of such innovations, output was not maintained and by 1918 Wanlockhead had fallen behind Leadhills, 1715 tons of lead ore compared with 1925 tons at the latter. Both companies benefited from the silver in the ore and Wanlockhead recorded 11,147 oz. (316 Kg) and Leadhills 5,956 ozs (153 Kg) of the precious metal.

A record of expenditure at the Wanlockhead mines shows the way the war pushed up costs. In 1914 it had cost £7.48 to produce a ton of lead, by 1918 this had risen to £22.55, yet the price of the metal had only gone from £20 to £29.

The cost of living also increased but the labourers at Leadhills were still getting 4/- (20p) a day, and in 1915 the Leadhills branch of the GW&GL looked for a minimum of 6/-. (30p) The management refused to negotiate so, at the end of September, the Leadhills Committee took men out on strike again.

As had been the case before, the 1916 dispute occurred at a time of labour unrest, particularly on Clydeside. Arising from the agitation there, the War Cabinet imposed a degree of censorship on Forward, and other left wing papers, in January 1916. However, the Leadhills miners were no doubt kept abreast of events elsewhere via the ILP.

The place of the library in relation to the miners perhaps diminished as the century advanced. There were now other interests in the village and the miners no longer monopolised library affairs. Membership held around 95, reading about 1440 books, during the war years. The figure was much as it had been half a century before, but at that time many more books were being borrowed. The available evidence does not point to the purchase of any books or papers of a political and left wing content, but Tom Johnston's consequential, A History of the Working Classes in Scotland was bought in the 1920s.

Four miners continued working, together with the day-wage men and the ore washers. The dispute in 1912 had been quickly settled, but this time the Company was prepared to stick it out. In November the Hamilton Advertiser claimed the dispute could have been resolved had the management met the men in "a fair and open manner". It reported that many left to find work elsewhere, probably seeking the high earnings available in the munitions factories, and it was said that the village was being "emptied of its best men".

By then the GW&GL had a Scottish District Secretary, J.McKenzie, and in January, 1916, he tried to bring the remaining men out. The move did not have the support of the committee. Memories of 1910, were strong, so it had been agreed that some men should continue working in what was in effect a selective strike for it was claimed they were not contributing to any production.

By the beginning of February support for the strike was dwindling and it was said the men were prepared to go back to work. But Skewis claimed he would only take married men and then on the basis of individual applications, the others would have to be attested for military service and, even if they were granted exemption, work could not be guaranteed.

In February, 1916, a letter signed "Fairplay", complained of the intransigence of the management and the "lordly" attitudes of every "jack-in-office" at the mines, and noted the doctor had left the village. This must have been a loss to labour relations since Ramsay had a role in bringing the 1909 strike to an end.

The executive of the GW&GL seems to have been unwilling to recognise a selective strike and refused further support. At a meeting organised by the ILP in the Metropole theatre, Glasgow, on the 26th February, Robert Smillie, devoted much time to the situation at Leadhills. Although the lead miners had left the Lanarkshire Union of Mineworkers after the abortive strike of 1898, Smillie had long entertained a sympathetic attitude to the community. In his report on the dispute he declared "not all tyranny is to be found in Germany", and went on to say that he "was not blaming the (Gasworkers) Union" for the failure of the strike, but at the same time, he "it would be a disgrace to Scotland and Scottish trade unionism if the men had to submit". Those present were sympathetic to his views and the meeting closed with a collection for the strikers.

McKenzie, the GW&GL District Secretary, claimed Smillie's remarks were "half truths", and unjustly reflected on the Union executive. Relations between the Leadhills committee and McKenzie seem to have become less than cordial, and in a letter to Forward the committee complained he had only twice visited Leadhills during the dispute; had a "want of understanding of metalliferous mining"; and "it was hopeless to try and explain things to him".

After the GW&GL withdrew support, the men applied to join the Lanarkshire Miners Union, but were told that nothing could be done while they were on strike. The Union did, however, provide some financial assistance.

In March, and after an abortive meeting with Skewis, an approach was made to James Alexander, and eventually an increase of 5/- a week seems to have been put forward. This gave the trammers about 5/- a day, and Skewis claimed he would take back all those who had not left the village. The Union recommended the proposals were accepted, and men were back at work by the 4th March.

The strike had lasted for 22 weeks; it was remarked how it had been a "hard struggle" and the miners had been supported by their womenfolk.

Among the MSS in the library at Leadhills is a slip of paper recording bargain payments to "John Adamson and Co. 17 men". It bears no date but a charge for "carbide" points to the 1920s. Its terms were for "driving, tramming, and platelaying", which suggests the miners eventually accepted tramming as an intrinsic task.

* * *

The connection with the GW&GL was officially severed soon after the strike. The Leadhills miners had joined it in high hopes; there had been no tangible results in terms of the miners' relations with their employers, but perhaps membership had led to a heightening of political awareness.

The GW&GL seems to have pursued an expansionist policy in Scotland circa 1910, probably in an attempt to make up lost ground. This followed it's aim of recruiting among workers outside the core industries and in remote places. One cannot but admire the effort Sherwood and Lynas put into long and difficult journeys from Sunderland. But communications must have been over-stretched and, in the case of Kinlochleven, the very remoteness of the industry left the employers with the control of housing and therefore of any strike. Hobsbawm points out that, to succeed in any dispute, a union had to "temper its socialism with considerations of strategy".

Smillie's remarks at the Metropole suggest not just a criticism of the GW&GL, but also of distant "English" unions. And the complaints from Leadhills point to what must have been a problem for all officials of general unions in relating to the peculiar crafts in a variety of industries.

The evidence is limited but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in spite of socialist attitudes which seemed much in keeping with the times, the GW&GL failed to make any real impact on trade unionism in Scotland.

The disputes there nevertheless illustrated the hunger for advice about dealing with reactionary management, as at Leadhills; and the need for funds to support a strike, as in the Highlands. They showed the way those in remote places would grasp at straws; and, that the GW&GL was so eagerly welcomed, seems to point to a failure of Scottish trade unions to meet needs outside the main industries. Other lead miners also found sympathy outwith colliers' unions for the men at Halkyn in Wales joined the "Dockers Union" in 1916, in spite of the influence of the coal mines across the Dee. Their choice may have been the National Union of Dockers and Labourers, another general union and one active on Merseyside.

Miners whose militancy during the War had some similarity with those at Leadhills were those at Millclose, Derbyshire. They joined the Derbyshire Miners Association in 1917 but, after abortive strikes, the mine was said to be "union free" by 1921.

* * *

The end of the strike allowed the Leadhills miners to join the Lanarkshire Union of Mineworkers as Branch no. 121, and in January, 1917, the Wanlockhead men decided the time had come for them "to combine as a trade union". At a large meeting in the Fraser Memorial Hall it was proposed that "we the workers employed by the lead mining company take steps to form a union amongst ourselves". Years before, their colleagues at Leadhills had been obliged to hold such a meeting in the open air, the use of the hall at Wanlockhead seems a tacit acknowledgement that the Company there was not adverse to union recognition.

The chair was taken by W.G.Wilson, and the poet Thomas Gracie was appointed secretary of a committee of seven, representing all the mine trades. Women had worked in the mines during the war and Wilson stated women workers would be made welcome.

At the meeting 156 men and five women joined as members, and in February 1918, a Wanlockhead branch of the Lanarkshire Miners Union was constituted. The Union executive looked for a combination with Leadhills, but the local committee was adamant that it wanted a separate branch, so Wanlockhead became No.66. It was agreed that "we let those who want to join come and join of their own free will", and in fact about 30 declined.

The previous year the LUM were among those unions who organised a meeting in Glasgow to "hail the Russian Revolution". It is not known if men from the lead mines were there. The ban on reports of events deemed as "harmful" to public order, may have meant the press took little notice of the occasion.

There is no certain record of the number of men from Leadhills who ended up in the armed forces, but in January 1918 the Hamilton Advertiser reported 54 parcels were sent from the village to "our boys". A Roll of Honour for Wanlockhead lists 109 names, although not all of them had lived in the village. Sixteen of them gave of their lives, and seventeen from Leadhills. The later figure can be compared with that of nine who died in the influenza epidemic of 1919.

The exigencies of the war demanded an unprecedented degree of Government control. The lead mining industry was being affected by unfamiliar forces, and an editorial in the Mining Journal of 1917 asked "Is it to be nationalisation"? In 1918 a Non Ferrous Industry Bill was introduced, aimed at regulating the, expected, peacetime metal market. However a correspondent to the MJ complained the Bill could "break the principals of free trade and destroy initiative." By the end of hostilities, the Mining Journal was still bemoaning the "heavy hand of Government control, and wondered if "a measure of nationalisation might not continue".

Companies also looked afresh at their relations with landowners. Early in 1918 a report in the Mining World criticised the current system of leasing, complaining that a royalty was not a true rental for mines were a wasting asset.

At the same time, combination was not only with the miners and in 1919 the Leadhills Company Ltd joined the Mine Owners Association. It represented coal interests, but then the lead miners had now aligned themselves with the colliers.

The two companies may have acknowledged some common labour interests, but they were not prepared to join in promoting a drainage level which would connect both mines, continue to Enterkinfoot, and de-water them down to about 75 M. The scheme had been put forward at various times and was much favoured by John Mitchell, the manager at Wanlockhead. It was estimated that the adit, 11.5 Km. long, would cost £150,000 and take six years to complete. In the end it all fell through, but a rather similar scheme proposed at Halkyn in Wales did eventually get Government support and it opened mines which worked into the 1930s.

* * *

Although both Companies now recognised the place of the trade union, attempts to secure a guaranteed minimum wage were not successful. However, the Wanlockhead branch claimed it had "improved the position of its members". In 1920 both companies met union representatives at a meeting chaired by the Ministry of Labour. A suggestion that wage increases in the coal mines should be applied to the lead miners was refused, but the companies later did raise average earnings to around £3 per week.

In November 1920 members the Wanlockhead Co-operative Society and the new Branch held a "Social and Concert", at which Wilson spoke of proposals to nationalise the coal mines, but put forward the view that he would rather see the mines run as co-operatives. A suggestion which led the Dumfries Standard to give its report of the event the sub-heading "Miners and Syndicalism".

Lead miners did not see their future in the nationalised industry favoured by the colliers. Those locked out of Millclose did attempt a co-operative venture, the Raithe Mine, but this was not a success.

* * *

The ending of wartime restrictions allowed the price of bar lead to briefly soar to £40, but the post war depression meant it later plummeted to around £10. In January 1921 both the mining companies cut wages by 1/4, and the men in the two villages responded by combining to strike. The Glasgow Herald reported it was the first strike at Wanlockhead and the fourth at Leadhills. It was in fact the fifth, but that in 1836 was long forgotten.

In April delegates from the two branches attended a meeting of the Lanarkshire Miners Union in Hamilton. They looked for a measure of parity with the colliers, and it was resolved that the Labour Party should bring the strike the attention of Parliament, asking if the "administration at the mines" was a proper one.

The Leadhills Company Ltd had its annual meeting soon afterwards, and asserted that a sliding scale of wages, as proposed for the coal miners, was impractical. There had been a loss of over £12,000 so the men's demands could not be met. There was talk of closure and it was claimed that the strike at the Laxey mines, IOM, had contributed to failure there.

A week later the Leadhills' men met in the Masonic Hall and agreed to petition the Marquis asking would he inquire if the Company intended to continue. If not the mines could be run as a workers co-operative. There were also protests at the way the men were being blamed for the labour troubles, and a letter to the Hamilton Advertiser, asserted the history of the Leadhills mines to be "cruel and sordid".

By May the men had been out for 14 weeks. There was great hardship, a soup kitchen had been set up, and the school children were getting a meal each day from the Education Authority. As had happened in the past, the community turned to self help, to get by. Summer visitors continued as a source of revenue at Leadhills, and a directory listed 13 "letting apartments". About a half of the houses now had their own water supply, and it was said that the number of "sanitary conveniences had increased". Miners in both villages also turned to gold prospecting. This time, and perhaps prompted by the operations in the Windgate in the '90s, some were "looking for the reef". However, it was the hard won grains from the burns which helped the fortunate to make ends meet.

By September it was said the "outlook for resuming work was remote" but some agreement was eventually reached and the dispute was settled in November. As was so often the case, the circumstances went un-recorded in the press.

* * *

John Mitchell, the manager at Wanlockhead, died in 1920 and was succeeded by his son William. New work was put in hand, a winding engine was ordered from Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock, and a tramway was laid up the valley on which a steam locomotive moved material to and from the rail terminus. In 1919 The Leadhills Company Ltd had purchased an electric locomotive for Glengonnar, claiming it's use would "economise labour".

By October 1922 the North Glencrieff shaft was down to 240f. and output that month was 124.7 tons of bar lead, selling at £24.6. The number of men employed rose to 252, and in April the following year a pump from W.H.Allen & Co. was being installed. The produce from the mine now included "gravel", crushed spoil, and 366 tons was sold for road-stone. This market was to increase and continued to provide work long after the mines closed.

* * *

Bawden Skewis left Leadhills in 1921 for an appointment in Spain, and his place was taken by a Captain Hall. In 1922 the Company again made a loss. In fact there was decline in metalliferous mining in Britain as a whole, and the editor of the Mining World wrote was not due to the depletion of ore reserves, but to unprofitable prices.

In that year a consultant, Henry Collins, provided the Marquis with a very hard hitting report on the state of affairs at Leadhills. He wrote how development had been concentrated on the Brow vein, little had been done elsewhere in the "extensive property", and "hand to mouth policies" had resulted in what Collins saw as an "unsatisfactory condition with regard to reserves". He wrote the previous managements had been "inclined to leave well alone" so long as the concern was paying its way, and remarked how the miners themselves were content with a "snail's pace". He believed output could be greatly increased, but this could only be achieved "through the incentive of higher earnings".

Collins also commented on the "labour question", and wrote he considered that past difficulties had been chiefly caused by the "lack of sympathy and tact of the former management". Following enquiries among some of the men, he was "inclined to think things (were now) moving in the right direction". He went on to suggest that this might develop into the "mutual confidence, trust, and cordial co-operation which is the ideal relationship between employer and employed". He might had included "justice", that intangible aspect of the relationship which enabled the miner to feel he had a place in his world.

Skewis returned to Leadhills in 1923 and, acting on Collins' recommendations, the company began sinking a new shaft on the Mill and Glasgow veins. It was called Borlase, probably because, in 1913, W.H.Borlase had recommended opening a mine there. But it was usually known as Wembley for it was begun the day on when the Exhibition opened, and no doubt it was expected that it too would exhibit good things. The ground had been tried with little success by William Borron in the 1850s, and again in the 1890s when a shaft from the horse level must have held promise of future success.

The shareholders at the meeting in 1924 were told 1518 tons of ore had been dressed, and the announcement of a dividend of 2/- provided an "agreeable surprise". They also heard that, after protracted discussions with the Hopetoun Estate, a new lease had been negotiated. The notion of a tack was now set aside, and the terms were £500 per annum plus 10% of any profits. The editor of the Mining World visited Leadhills and wrote the mines were in a "healthy position", noting the "famous Holman drills" were being used. Ore was being worked to 217 fathoms, 400 M. and, yet again, new work in Susanna was proposed.

James Alexander died in March; Wilson became chairman, and W.H.Borlase, who had continued to act as a consultant, was invited to join the board. In a report to the 1924 meeting, Skewis remarked on the difficulty created by the broken ground in the sole of the levels, and stated he believed water was being "pumped up over and over again". In spite of the dividend, the mood of the shareholders was censorious and it was remarked that there was no vote of thanks from the floor when the meeting ended.

The 1925 Annual Meeting was held in Leadhills, perhaps to discourage the presence of dissenting London voices. Shareholders who made the journey were told it had been a disappointing year. The expected riches in the new mine had failed to materialise. Most of the drifts in the Glasgow vein had only found barren ground, and cross cuts had been opened to the Meadowhead, Brown and Carse veins. Money had been spent on a suction-gas engine, and on repairs to the Shortcleuch dam. However, 1260 tons of lead had been sold at £23-3 a ton, and a dividend of 1/- was declared.

In 1926 Skewis retired. In London, the annual meeting greeted the news with emotion, and applauded his "painstaking" attention to the Company's affairs. His "happy and cordial relationship" with the miners was especially remarked on. What you see is what you get and, as had been the case in Borron's day, those in London had their own view of events at Leadhills.

But there was a loss of £6000, and it was asserted that over the previous 7 years the dividends had been paid out of reserves. The chairman, Felix Wilson sought to encourage the meeting by declaring "All mining men must be hopeful", and a proposal by a Mr Pawle, a vociferous shareholder, to wind up the Company was rejected.

In spite of membership of the LUM, the lead miners apparently did not join the lengthy stoppage at the coal mines which followed the General Strike. But work at the lead mines was put in jeopardy for lack of fuel, and the Leadhills shareholders were reminded that it was the "trade union friends" of their own men who now threatened the mine.

The 1927 meeting welcomed F.J.Tregay as the new manager, but the price for lead continued to decline and there was a loss of £4464. Operations on the Brow vein were wound down for, in spite of trials at various levels, no new lodes had been found. Some shareholders, led by Pawle, raised critical questions, but were told the voice of the majority was in favour of continuing.

In 1928 the Glengonnar mine, once seen as being at the forefront of technology, was abandoned, and work was concentrated at Wembley, with 88 men underground and 56 on the surface.

The gas engine at the Wembley mine gave so much trouble it had to be taken out, and in 1927 another water turbine was installed instead. The next year more machinery was moved from Glengonnar. There was seldom any investment in new plant if the old could be made to serve. The workings in Wembley were now down to 450 ft (140 M), but the Glasgow vein proved a disappointment. Cross cuts were driven to five other veins, including Mill and Meadowhead, but, although some ore was raised from the former, results elsewhere were disappointing. A bold notion was to take a long, exploratory, level to the west to intersect veins under Hunt Law and on the boundary of the Company's ground. But nothing seems to have come of this, and by the end of 1928 it was being rumoured that 100 men would be paid off. In fact less were made redundant but what was described as "arctic weather" added to a bleak outlook for the Leadhills villagers.

At Wanlockhead the company had made a gross profit of £15,110 in 1926. But in 1927 there was a loss of £597, and in 1928 the smelter was closed down.

That year also saw an acrimonious quarrel between W.S.Brown, who had been chairman until 1925, and William Fraser. Brown claimed that facts about the state of the Company were being withheld from the shareholders. He had issued a report of his own and was being threatened with libel action.

The points at issue are now less than clear, but in any event out-put remained high and in 1929 twenty of the men made redundant at Leadhills found work "over the hill".

* * *

There was much criticism of the decision to close the Glengonnar mine and another report for the Marquis was prepared in January 1929 by Earnest Woakes of Taylor & Company. He wrote that he considered the decision to have been "a proper one", and although the results from the Wembley mine had proved "disappointing", he believed the developments there were the "best course in the present circumstances". Woakes also visited Wanlockhead and remarked on "the thorough and miner like way" the management there set about its business.

Woakes perhaps tried to be optimistic about Leadhills, but the end was in sight. In February the Hamilton Advertiser reported "everything points to a stoppage". By March most of the miners had been laid off, and in June the Mining World announced "with regret" that operations would cease. On the 27th an extraordinary general meeting resolved the company be sold. No purchaser came forward, and on the 12th October, the Leadhills Company Ltd was wound up.

The following year the Wanlockhead mines produced over 4000 tons of ore and 819 tons of zinc blende. But it was no more than a flash in the pan, and on the 16th July, 1931, the mines there were also closed.

A correspondent to the Glasgow Herald remarked how another "old industry has passed away" and, reviewing the course of a recession which left scores of small communities without work, a correspondent to the Hamilton Advertiser quoted Goldsmith -

Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

But all was not yet over with an industry which had survived for so long. On the 1st January, 1931, interests in Edinburgh got together to re-start operations at Leadhills. They comprised two accountants, J.R.King and J.A.Walker, and a mining engineer, A.E.Kitto. They were joined by F.J.Tregay the manager at Leadhills, and they took an old name The Leadhills Mining Company for the partnership but were now a Limited company. It was stated that the flotation was made possible by the expected sale of "chips" for road-stone, but lead ore would be mined as well.

The company had a capital of £25,000, in £1 shares, and purchased the lease of Leadhills and South Shortcleuch for £18,750.

Seventy tons of "gravel" were sold in January 1931, and some lead ore was produced from the Mill Vein, and from an adit into what was called the Horselevel Vein. There was a feeling of optimism; Tregay reported "more ore is now in sight than in any recent time" and, to maximise the output of roadstone, he was installing a new crushing plant.

There was a brief resurgence of activity at Wanlockhead in 1934, but in September the company there finally suspended its operations and the "clouds of the depression menaced the village".

Records are scant but the continuing operations at Leadhills cannot have employed more than a few men, and in May, 1934 the Village Council, successors to the Parish Council, wrote to Sir Arthur Rose, chairman of the Distressed Areas Committee, asking for a meeting to consider the "industrial situation" in the village. There is no record of any meeting or other action by the Committee, and the villagers had to turn to their own devices. As in the past, the small-holdings and tourism seemed to offer means of getting by. It was remarked that "the crofters" were making the most of the fine summer; a new golf course had been set out and winter snows offered the opportunity of a skiing development. In 1935 the Village Council was seeking an entry in some unspecified tourist guide, and at the same time there was interest in a Government sponsored "Home Croft Experiment".

By 1938 The Leadhills Mining Company Ltd. sold about 490 tons of ore and an unrecorded amount of road stone. An output of 3000 tons of the latter was looked for, but greywacke rock is unsuitable for road metal and the amount sold must have been insufficient to maintain a viable operation. The closure of the railway added to the economic pressures, and the Leadhills Company Ltd ceased trading in March, 1938. A reference to the purchase of new air drills the following year suggests there was an attempt to continue mining. If so it was not successful, and in 1940 what remained of the plant was sold by auction.

There was now no indigenous work for either community but, against all odds, they survived. No other industry came forward but, in a surge of post war interest in minerals, the Glencrieff mine at Wanlockhead was briefly re-opened in 1950. After it closed both villages faced, and perhaps continue to face, an uncertain future.

A century before William Gibson had asserted, "We have aye been provided for, and aye will yet"; now the Minister at Leadhills wrote in the Third Statistical Account, "We can leave the future take care of itself knowing the people will face it calmly and with courage".

Finis.