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Houses
After 1815 the mining companies often built and leased housing to their workers. For example, The London Lead
Company deliberately built houses for its workers in an attempt to improve on the poor conditions in which many
of the workers lived.
Houses were typically a long 2-storied building, and often served the dual purpose of being both a miners' cottage
and small farmhouse. The ground floor often had a kitchen/living room at one end with a byre, or cattle shed, at the
other. Above the kitchen were one, or sometimes two, bedrooms, with a hay-loft above the byre.
Groups of two or more houses were usually set out in a row with associated outbuildings behind. The houses were
generally white-washed with lime as this was both plentiful and cheap.
Generally, it could be said that the lead miners were housed in better conditions than many of the coal miners
throughout the county. In some settlements overcrowding was off-set by the open moorland which surrounded them,
and the plentiful water supplies which were diverted for sanitation purposes. The only real drawback was the air
quality as a result of the fumes from lead smelting. However, this was greatly improved by the construction in
the late 18th century of long horizontal chimneys (such as the one at Lintzgarth) taking the fumes up the valley
sides away from the populated areas.
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