Appletree Shield
Appletree Shield is located above mine-workings in the Wellhope Burn (NY773498). Now in ruins, there would have been at least three dwellings, with only one surviving to a later date while the others became outbuildings. The original layout can be reconstructed in the one pictured with two main rooms with sleeping quarters above. Below the main room is a further room dug into the slope of the hillside with an external entrance. This could have been a store or even a stable for cattle or sheep.
Three hundred metres to the north, where the Wellhope Burn meets the Mohope Burn, is the remains of Appletreeshield Chapel. Primitive Methodism was major religious force in the lead mining dales and 'Apple Tree Shield had the honour of having the first chapel. That was in 1829, and the following description of the trustees was copied from “an old deed, about the size of a man’s hand”:—
“John Flesher, gentleman, and minister of the gospel in the Primitive Methodist Connexion; Isaac Walton, of Appletree Shield, refiner of lead; John Walton, of the same place, lead ore miner; Henry Bell, Wellhope, lead ore miner; John Armstrong, of the same place, lead ore miner; Thomas Bell, Hexley Well, lead ore miner; and William Routledge, of Colacleugh, lead ore miner.”
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from “NORTHERN PRIMITIVE METHODISM” by W.M. PATTERSON, E. Dalton, London, 1909)'The main mine, Wellhope Mine, 3 km further south and 170 m higher up the Wellhope Burn, appears to have been most active between 1760 and 1820. Heartycleugh mine, 2 km nearer Appletree Shield, was developed about 1810 and employed 28 men in 1814 but was apparently never very successful and was abandoned in 1830.
IN 1701 Joseph Walton of Appletree Shield was buried in the church at Allendale. In 1881 William Walton was living there with his wife Jane, daughter Mary Jane and brother-in-law Edward Dodd. The other two dwelling were uninhabited.
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1865 6" to 1 mile map (Click map to display a larger area or here for still more) |
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Francis and Peggy Swindle moved from Nook/harsley to Appletree Shield after the birth of their second son Francis (1802) and lived there for about five years.