Clive Seal (Rosendale Collieries) will lead a surface meet to Tindale smelter and the coal mines around the area including the railway network which served them. The smelter ran from 1845 for 50 years processing Zinc and was one of the earliest in Britain. In 1928 Tindale Zinc Extraction Ltd restarted the works and was the only plant Britain to use a rotary kiln before closing in 1931.
In 1937 the plant was re-opened to experimentally treat cadmium-rich residues transported from the zinc works at Avonmouth and Swansea Vale before a catastrophic mechanical failure in the kiln forced closure. The site is now a scheduled monument.
There are a number of coal mines in the area which Clive an ex-coal miner from Lancashire and Alston knows well.
19th April at 10.00am
Meet Top of Tindale village