Report – Joseph Hilton – 1 May 1778

In May 1821 the Alston Moormaster, John Dickinson (1755-1833, who was appointed Moormaster in 1790), and his son Thomas, who was Clerk of the Ore Deliveries and later succeeded his father as Moormaster, submitted a report on the prospects for all the lead veins on Alston Moor.  The report incorporate copies of an earlier set of similar reports compiled in 1778 by Joseph Hilton, the then Moormaster at the time. This report is organised by mine and/or vein, combining Hilton’s entry for 1778 and the Dickinsons’ for 1821 under each.  No date is given for Hilton’s report other than the year. It is arbitrarily assigned to 1st May here, since the 1821 report was also submitted in May. It is possible that as moormaster, and responsible for the ore carriage, Hilton may have had more time in the spring to compile such a report than later in the year. The report was compiled for the mineral rights owner, the Greenwich Hospital and gives an insight into the understanding and thinking about mineral deposits and geology. Some of Hilton’s theories about which veins would be productive are wildly wrong but nevertheless it is abundantly clear that by 1778 there was an excellent understanding of the stratigraphy of the whole manor.


The report is too long for inclusion in the database so this is a stub record to indicate its presence. The combined report for 1778 and 1821 can be downloaded as a PDF from the Miscellaneous Archives page within ‘Documents and sources’ section of this website (file ‘Wigan D DZA 264 Hilton and Dickinson reports’). The original document is amongst papers relating to James Mulcaster in the care of Wigan Archives Service.