Capt. Readhead

[janwhin]

There is a thread running on the Acklington pages about Captain Robert Readhead of Amble New Hall. In 1791 he was bankrupt and a meeting of creditors received an update on unsold assets. One of these was Debdon colliery.
Readhead was from a Rothbury family which seemed to have acquired property from Rothbury to Amble.

MacKenzie's History of Northumberland, published in 1811 has the following information about the Captain's Rothbury property:
Near to Debdon Wells "are many excavations, from which Captain Readhead, of Rothbury, obtained large amounts of ochre; but the great expense of carriage, as we are informed, induced that gentleman to abandon the undertaking."
"Towards the south, on a rising ground called Ward's Hill, are mines of limestone, coal, and iron......The latter appears to have been dug to a considerable extent; and that very ingenious and scientific gentleman, Captain Readhead, has extracted a greater proportion of ore from stones found here, than from any other which he has had an opportunity of submitting to a chemical analyze."