[1] The name is believed to come from the Carthusian order of Chartreuse in France, which was established in Witham (near Frome) in 1181 and formed a cell at Charterhouse in 1283 with a grant to mine lead ore.[2][3][4] There is evidence, in the form of burials in local caves, of human occupation since the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age.

[5] A 2024 study of bones from a mass grave found in caves at Charthouse Warren in the 1970s suggests that 37 people were massacred in a violent cannibalistic event occurring between 2200-2000 BC.

[7] At first the lead/silver industries were tightly controlled by the Roman military, but within a short time the extraction of these metals was contracted out to civilian companies, probably because the silver content of the local ore was not particularly high.

[13] After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was granted to Robert May who constructed a substantial house here and one of his descendants John May became High Sheriff of Somerset in 1602.

[3] There is further evidence of mine workings in the medieval and Victorian periods,[14][15] some of which survives within the Blackmoor Nature Reserve owned by Somerset County Council.