button to main menu  Otley's Guide 1823 (5th edn 1834)

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Page 177:-
1614, the said William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon, sold and conveyed unto Sir Wilfred Lawson, of Isle, Knight, and several others therein named to the number of thirty-six, chiefly inhabitants of Borrowdale, 'all the said manor of Borrowdale, with the appurtenances of what nature or kind soever, excepted and reserved unto the said William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon, their heirs and assigns, all those wad-holes, and wad, commonly called black-cawke, within the commons of Seatoller, or elsewhere within the commons and wastes of the manor of Borrowdale aforesaid, with liberty to dig, work, and carry the same, and other their appurtenances whatsoever.' In consequence of which reservation the wad or black-lead mine has been ever since held distinct from other royalties of the said manor, one moiety thereof now belongs to Henry Bankes, Esq. the other half being subdivided into several shares.
This mine is situated about nine miles from Keswick, near the head of the valley of Borrowdale, in the steep side of a mountain, facing towards the south-east, and has been opened at different places where the wad had probably appeared on the surface: the rock in which it occurs is called by Mr. Bakewell, a grey felspar porphry (sic); near the mine it becomes of a darker colour, as containing more iron, the joints being lined with a ferruginous clayey matter: it is intersected in various directions by strings, or small rake veins, containing in some
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button -- Borrowdale Graphite Mine (?)
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