London Lead Company

Another group of entrepreneurs, of whom Dr Edward Wright was a leading member, obtained leases in Cumberland in 1693.

In 1704, the owners acquired the charter of the defunct The Company for Smelting Down Lead with Pitcoal, and transferred their business to it.

The Company had Quaker origins and tried to provide for its workers who suffered appalling conditions underground and working with the ore.

It consists of several uniform rows of neat and convenient cottages, situated in a spacious garden, a portion of which was appropriated to each dwelling.

The increasing population of Middleton had considerably enhanced the rents of dwelling houses there, and it was to diminish this burden that the Company built Masterman Place, in which, as vacancies occur, they place their most deserving workmen, thus combining general utility with the reward of personal merit.