Miners were indeed imported from abroad. With no work local miners had to emigrate to places such as Canada, Australia and South Africa.

Their trials are well documented in the poems of Richard Watson ... The Teesdale Poet.

Things improved when in 1880 Middleton became the headquarters of the benevolent Quaker owned, London Lead Company which built houses, schools and libraries for its workers and became the first British company to introduce the five day week.