Rookhope is a village in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, in England. A former lead and

fluorspar Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

mining community, it first existed as a group of cattle farms in the 13th Century. It is situated in the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

to the north of Weardale. W. H. Auden once called Rookhope "the most wonderfully desolate of all the dales". In the 2001 census Rookhope had a population of 267. The village had two public houses, the Rookhope Inn and the Swallow's Rest on the fell surrounding Rookhope but now closed (May 2022), both popular with cyclists on the coast to coast cycling route which runs from

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on the east coast to Whitehaven or Workington on the West Cumbrian coast of northern England. Travelling by road, Rookhope is to the west of Durham, to the west of Newcastle upon Tyne, to the north west of Middlesbrough and to the east of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

Mining

Rookhope was once the centre of lead and fluorspar mining in the Dale. The last mine closed in 1999. The shaft head at Grove Rake was recently saved from demolition.

Rookhope Arch

A local landmark is the Rookhope Arch at Lintzgarth, a few hundred yards west up the valley; one of the few remaining parts of the Rookhope Chimney. This "horizontal" chimney (parallel to the ground, which actually rises steeply to the moors) was used to carry poisonous flue gases from the Rookhope lead smelting works up onto the high moor. Periodically, lead and silver carried over in the gases and deposited in the chimney were dug out and recovered, rather than going to waste.

St John the Evangelist church

The original St John's in Rookhope was built in 1822, but at the end of the 19th century it was pulled down and rebuilt in its current position in 1905. The church closed in 2014. It is a Grade II listed building.

Governance

Rookhope is in the parliamentary constituency of North West Durham, for which Richard Holden is the first Conservative Member of Parliament. For Local Government purposes it is in the ''Weardale Ward'' of

Durham County Council Durham County Council is a local authority administering all significant local government functions in the unitary authority area of County Durham in North East England. The council area covers part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, e ...

. For Parish council purposes it is part of Stanhope Parish Council.

Literary references

The Rookhope Ride

''The Rookhope Ride'' is a border ballad rescued and noted down by Joseph Ritson from the chanting of George Collingwood of Boltsburn near Rookhope about 1785. The date of the action (a raid) is precise: 6 December 1569, when robbers from Tynedale made a foray into Weardale.

W. H. Auden

The poet W. H. Auden was familiar with this whole area of the North Pennines and its derelict lead mines, having visited Rookhope at the age of 12 in 1919.NorthEastLife: WH Auden Walk – Rookhope, Weardale
(with photo gallery) In his poem ''New Year Letter'' (1941) he wrote that it was in Rookhope that he first became aware of himself as an individual: In this poem he refers to dropping a pebble down a mine-shaft on top of neighbouring Bolt's Law.

References

External links

In and Around the former lead mining village of Rookhope; ''and'' Rookhope fields & fells: A mineral valleys project walk
{{authority control Villages in County Durham Stanhope, County Durham