Qualla: Allenheads https://qualla.com/allenheads en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Allenheads https://qualla.com/allenheads Allenheads: Introduction https://qualla.com/allenheads/ At 404 metres above sea level - just over 1,325 feet - Allenheads sits in a fold of moorland near the top of the East Allen valley, with the wind coming off Killhope Moor and not much else above it. The village was built for one reason: lead. When the mines closed, the village kept going by becoming several other things in turn, including, in 2017, the home of a small observatory pointed at one of the darkest skies in England.

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/allenheads-wp/gcwr-allenheads-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Allenheads: A Village Made of Ore https://qualla.com/allenheads/ Allenheads was founded around lead mining, which by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had made the North Pennines one of the most productive ore fields in Britain. The mine that defined the village was operated by the Beaumont family and worked some of the richest veins in ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/allenheads-wp/gcwr-allenheads-a-village-made-of-ore.mp3 0:06 2 full Allenheads: The Brief Return https://qualla.com/allenheads/ In the 1970s the British Steel Corporation reopened the workings as the Beaumont Mine, this time chasing fluorspar - the mineral fluorite, used as a flux in steelmaking. The venture did not last. It turned out to be cheaper to source fluorite elsewhere, and the mine closed again....

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/allenheads-wp/gcwr-allenheads-the-brief-return.mp3 0:06 3 full Allenheads: Armstrong's Engine https://qualla.com/allenheads/ The village's industrial heritage centre is built around a preserved Armstrong Whitworth hydraulic engine that once powered the mine's sawmill. The engine is significant beyond its local context: William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong of Elswick on Tyneside, was one of the great ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/allenheads-wp/gcwr-allenheads-armstrongs-engine.mp3 0:06 4 full Allenheads: The Highforest Show https://qualla.com/allenheads/ Every first Saturday in September, the village holds the Highforest Show. It is the kind of event that small, scattered communities use to reassert themselves: a quoits competition (Allenheads still plays the old Pennine bowling game), a dog show, children's stalls, a chance for ...

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]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/w/r/allenheads-wp/gcwr-allenheads-the-highforest-show.mp3 0:06 5 full